Kurds Are More Pro-American than Americans! Glenn Reynolds' sock-puppet Michael Totten won himself a big slot over at the White House News Network by spewing an astonishing collection of lies about America's puppet state in Iraq.
'The only Kurd terrorists are based in Iran' warbles little Mikey. And don't all these ethnically pure Kurdish policemen seem remarkably well-groomed and turned out. Neatness counts when ensuring that only those with the right ethnic credentials have the right to vote.
There's just one problem with little Mikey's hymn to Kurd authoritarianism. It's pure crap. The most dangerous Kurdish terrorists are based in American controlled northern Iraq. PKK terrorists just killed a bunch more Turkish troops and the Turkish government is ready to go ballistic.
Guess how many secular Muslim states with free elections and key security deals with the west and who have been members of the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization there are in the Middle East right now?
If you guess none, you could be right. That is, if plans to partition Iraq gain much more traction.
There are something like 28 million Kurds living in and around Turkey, Iran and Iraq. Most are probably real nice folks. The worst, however, seem to inhabit Iraq. At least, that's were 3000 PKK terrorists are based, the ones who crossed the border earlier this week to kill 13 Turkish soldiers.
Turkey today served notice of their intention to invade Iraq to hunt down Kurdish terrorists based in US controlled northern Iraq. You know, the friendly place Little Mikey claims has no terrorists at all.
PKK Terrorists share the same nationalist dream of uniting Kurds in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria into an ethnically pure Kurd state.
The US military is not going to be able to fix Iraq. An independent Kurd state looks like an easy solution to Dem politicians desperate for an easy fix. Fact is: an independent Kurd state will deprive Sunnis of any oil revenue, as Juan Cole points out. And most Iraqis do not want partition.
We know that US troops are already likely operating in Iran. A pro-US Kurd state is the most likely location for US troops stationed in the region.
The threat of invasion by Turkey means that the next Dem President will have to offer security guarantees to the Kurds at the very least. Much more likely, US troops will remain in northern Iraq for many years to come.
How long? Figure fifty years at the very minimum, because that's half as long as the Kurd-Turk conflict has lasted, and that's a conservative estimate. And that's how long US troops have been in Japan and Germany, the countries referred to most often as examples by the surge can work crowd.
Update: Juan Cole claims the Turkish military is 'livid'.