Kurds Warn Turkey of ‘Big War’ Russia has promised to protect Kurdish fighters

[Wounded Bear]

4. Kurds have wanted their own country for many years...

I hear they've softened their stance, in favor of a enhanced federal status in Iraq, but still.

Obviously, the Russians don't really give a shit about that, but are using it as leverage against the Turks, because of long standing issues there.

The whole region has issues that stem from before WWI and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, not to mention the whole Sunni-Shia thing going back to the 7th Century. It's a clusterfuck, and our going in and trying to seize/"open up" the oil resources have not helped. For all of his brutality-a probably largely because of it-Saddam's Iraq was the most secular, stable country in the region. Toppling him released a lot of regional power brokers trying to be the next BMOC.

Thanks, Bush/Cheney. I hope this whole fucking war period is named after them in perpetuity. The Bush/Cheney War. So much more accurate than the Second Middle Eastern War, don't you think?