Dr. M. Koohzad explains why the Kurds are people we can work with

When the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation posted their hagiography of the plucky Israeli-Canadian woman now fighting for the Kurds, the story contained this interesting nugget;

Israel's NRG news site reported at the time that Rosenberg turned to crime after running short on money, that she was estranged from her parents and had tried in vain to join the Mossad spy service.

Israel has maintained discreet military, intelligence and business ties with the Kurds since the 1960s, seeing in the minority ethnic group a buffer against shared Arab adversaries.

Since the 1960's? That would explain a lot of Kurdish mischief-making, would it not? And would it not make perfect sense, in that the Kurds represent a viable fifth column within many of Israel's adversaries in the region? Iran, Syria, Iraq, and Turkey?

Today Counterpunch has on view an essay by Dr. M. Koohzad, reminding Americans who to thank for the lowest gasoline prices they've seen in years... why, the Kurds of course!

Any serious person will immediately recognize that as a tail-wags-dog story. The collapse in petroleum prices has been engineered by the House of Saud, not by the Kurds, and their rationale has nothing to do with the happiness of American consumers and everything to do with driving a spike through the heart of America's fracking industry.

Nevertheless, Dr. Koozhad makes some telling points.

In the event that petroleum reserves in the Kurdish areas were to be fully exploited, Kurdistan could indeed emerge as a major player in the global petrol sweeps. And unlike those selfish anti-Americans in Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, and even, it seems, Saudi Arabia, the reader is assured that the leadership of an independent Kurdistan would pledge eternal fealty to the West in return for providing the guns and bombs required to make that independence possible.

Alas, there is also a hint of venality in Dr. Koohzad's thesis; as much as he is overtly sucking up to the US and Israel, he also lets slip that the biggest cash customers for Kurdish oil are in fact Turkey and Iran!

There you have it. We can work with the Kurds because they are the only democrats in the Middle East (outside of Israel, of course) and they can keep us in cheap oil for a long time. That combo of democratic values and cheap gas is an offer America cannot refuse.