Mingle Until Departure

Salon's lead story today is about the Kurds, with the headline,
This is clearly set up to be a semi-counterintuitive lede - having something a U.S. right-winger might say, but coming out of the mouth of a Kurd. On this count, it's pretty sloppy journalism - because as long as the "you" in the speaker's quote refers to a Kurd, he's right. He could also substitute "Turk," "Persian," "Syrian," "Briton," or "American" for "Arab," and would still be correct, because the Kurds have a long history of being oppressed and/or sold out by, basically, everyone.

The article continues to paint the picture of the Kurds as brutal and revenge-seeking, with the Sunnis their hapless victims; the author (Ferry Biederman) scoffs as Arab suspects who are "almost certainly not terrorists" are apprehended. Pretty irresponsible for Salon, which normally does a good job of contextualizing its coverage of foreign affairs, to print Biederman's largely unsubstantiated opinions as news; but the article is worth a read, as it does give a good look inside the leadership of the Kurdish military, which is important to understand, as they're one of the things standing between us and WWIII.