Disquieting Iraq report of the day

helps who?

These people were part of Bush's reasons for attacking Saddam. He kept citing how the dictator had gassed them. Now, US troops are shooting them. By Bush's own logic, this is a good pretext for a full-scale invasion of Washington DC.

US policy toward the Kurds--a mass of contradictions.

more grist for hitchens

the iraqi kurds have so far done pretty well out of recent events, all things considered (including previous betrayals by earlier us administrations), and since iraq1 have gone further than anyone much expected towards building a kurdish state - either in the full nation sense (the dream of kurdistan) or failing that in the state-within-federated-set-up... a secure kurd-run region for kurds within iraq

either way, this actually somewhat threatens the pkk's claim to "represent the kurdish nation": the various iraqi kurdish groupings, democratic and military, are long up and running compared to the pkk as recognised bodies worldwide, and (more important) as bodies running a locally functioning polity in northern iraq (which was freed from saddam's attentions after iraq1 - turkey cd grit its teeth and do a deal (under us pressure) with the iraqi kurd orgs far more willingly than it ever will with the pkk

hence: "exchange of fire" - whether or not a stable us-friendly democracy in iraq is in kurdish interests generally, it's def *not* in pkk interests as a party and guerrilla army in its present form

ie i don't think this incident in itself represents some breakdown of recent (clearly better) relations between the us and *iraqi* kurds, let alone a betrayal of same (and it isn't even slightly remotely faintly an equivalent to saddam's gassings, obviously) (bush's logic isn't generally much to write home about but nor is momus's in the post above)

the report ned links to doesn't make any mention of the response of iraqi kurd orgs to this event, but that's surely actually the most important aspect

mark s., is the complete absence of capital letters in your posts some sort of philosophical statement?

Does make it much easier for Turkey to send troops to Iraq if the US cracks down on the PKK.

My logic is poetic logic, the justice I modestly proposed above was poetic justice. Mark S's capital aversion also reminds me of poetry: stuff written in the early 70s by hippy schoolteachers. All he needs is the enjambement:

the report ned
links to
doesn't make any
mention
of the
response of iraqi
kurd orgs

And he needs to read it aloud with weird singsongy accents here and there.

"Enjambement"? Does this mean getting your leg over?

"My logic is poetic logic" = "oops busted, yes i was talking bollocks!"

(if you want to hunt around of a "poetic" justification for iraqis to invade america, possibly the fact that america just invaded iraq wd do the trick)

ed, i don't think that flies, really: the iraqi kurds are very hostile INDEED to a turkish presence, and since they are really the only section of the "pro"-american iraqi coalition which has any kind of social strength-in-depth (ie their leaders are not recently returned exiles w/o well-established constituencies), the americans are (currently) being *much* more solicitous towards their concerns

i'm not saying that the occupation can't fuck this up badly at any moment, i'm saying that brushfires w.the pkk are the least of their worries, really - an unencumbered turkey on the northern border is much more of a problem than a distracted and conflicted and constrained turkey

also: firepower and manpower - remember the occupation force is TINY, TIRED and OVERSTRETCHED. so picking fights with all and sundry as POLICY is bonkers (as opposed to some stressed patrol not knowing how not to engage at the shotfire level, which i kind of assume this event actually was)

No full stops either.

(Not that I really mind. I'm guessing it's a Derridean tactic to slow down the reader.)

curious, my dayjob = proofreader => i hate Official Punctuation

you are e e cummings and i claim my five pounds

U can work 4 me, skip, my guys are all MENTALLLLL

btw, from now on this is how i'm gonna roll

after yesterday's brush with self-pity, i am now following mark promotiong punxortuation, it's the only way ahead. mark - fer serious actually, i do hire copyeds/proofreaderz.

the rules, taken to extreme 'piano teacher' lenghts, always end up contradicting themselves, and anyway diff palces use diff vershes and it's all vanity, all of it

at my interview i shall give you my "abolish the fkn SPACE" pitch - my editors love that one

well mark s. as a former proofreader I feel yr pain

only the job had the opp effect on me, I became utterly obsessed with punctuation accuracy

when i nearly came to blows w/ another proofreader over the use of a rogue semi-colon i knew it was time to move on

wht kinf of space? i think most punc is fascist, like we all have to read in the same way... i can work out where the stress falls, g. i think i'm hours from losing this job, mark, but if anything happens b4 then...
but when all is said and done the presence of copyeditors etc makes writers lazy.

abolishthefascistSPACEd00dz

wowthatisintense!!!!fuckengeniusman!!

b-butsdfkjerkjsdfkeropjeojfglkshgkdfgdkjfjosdkokdsl;fcjlsd;jfldjFl;jdL+FJldsj
!=
edfkhjdskljsriesojfdssdifpdslkmsdl;fjl;djslfjdsljl!!!!!

whatnopunctuationnocapitalsnospacesmanitmakesitprettydifficulttorreadthough

heynobodysaid'stopspelling';thisisperfectlylegible,orwillbetothegamecubeplayingyootof2009

Proof that mark s = ee cummings:

you can't re-eat an apple

(from Derrida thread)

But actually, Sterling Clover's

Why can't you grow an apple about a book?

is better cummings.