Me: Back, World: Still Messed Up

Hi. I'm back. More on why I was gone later. Just wanted to run through a few things that have caught my eye. 1. Juan Cole takes a reasoned look at how powerful our enemies really are and why we are fighting them. I don't agree with everything he says but it is an excellent framework for discussion of this issue. 2. The leader of Iraqi Kurdistan has banned the Iraqi flag from official Kurdish settings and later threatened to seccede from Iraq over it. He says it is a symbol of the Hussein regime's violence against Kurds. This is one step closer to de facto or actual independence for the Kurds and dropping the "Iraqi" from "Iraqi Kurdistan". But, unless the rest of the country explodes, that won't happen before the Kurds annex Kirkuk late next year. The Kurds apparently have time to worry about flags as things are going pretty well for them. 3. In other Turkey v. Kurdistan related news, Turkey has decided to commit troops as part of the peace keeping force in Lebanon, despite major opposition and protests from inside the country. Some worry that commiting troops outside of the country will reduce Turkey's ability to deal with the PKK at home and in Iraqi Kurdistan. I haven't found any recent PKK attacks (since the resort bombings) so, hopefully things will stay calm for a while. Tags: World War III, Middle East, Politics, Terrorism, Iraq, Turkey, International, NATO, PKK, Kurdistan, Kurds