Agreed. This is one of the inevitable tides of history playing out in the region. Turkey has a long history of genocidal oppression against the Kurds. The Kurdish minority in Turkey wants out, wants to be free at least from the horrific oppression they have suffered, and to a lesser but no less repugnant level, continue to suffer.

An Oil Rich Socio-political 'kurdistan' in the north of Iraq is one of the many lit matches in the regional tinderbox. It provides aid and shelter to Turkish Kurd opposition groups, and the most dangerous commodity for the oppressors: it offers the oppressed hope.

If things do go to hell there, my money is with the Kurds. As one of the main sponsors behind the INC and Challaby, they have demonstrated exquisite skill in manipulating 'great' powers, and in surviving the wrath of Saddam, they have shown great skill in covert warfare. The INC and Challaby, as you probably know, were the primary source of 'Bullsh...' I mean 'faulty intelligence' for the pentagon OSP and the Cheney/Rumsfeld Alliance that usurped the CIA and helped get us into this mess. The Kurds are the dune-esque 'Fremen'- yet despite that analogy, are perhaps the most moderate groups (with notable exceptions), in terms of religion, in the area.

My heart is with the Kurds as well, as they carry on some awesome and ancient cultural, religious and spiritual ideals (again with notable exceptions)- especialy the Sufi and moderate Shafi'i'.

I wish them well. May they emerge of a loci of sanity in that blighted hellhole.

However, they will have a deep price exacted form them before this is over, regardless. But, sadly, its a price they have paid for many hundreds of years. Like I said, the only thing that the entire region agrees on is what should be done to the Kurds, and what they think should be done is empirically obvious from a brief survey of the last few 100 years.

DL