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.

Turkish despot slaughters his own people

And on Christmas day! Oh the outrage!

News reports indicate over a dozen members of the PKK were ruthlessly slaughtered by Erdogan loyalists.

What is the civilized world to do? Set a no-fly zone?

Support the PKK with weapons and money?

Assemble a NATO air force to smash the positions of the Erdogan loyalists?

Oh, wait a minute... Turkey's is a NATO country...

Nevermind then!

Carry on Erdogan!

NATO's Turkey a powderkeg of contradictions

On the one hand, they're busy as can be doing NATO's bidding with their unquestioning support of the Syrian uprising. As serious people who follow these matters well know, the "support" is much more than that.

Without the connivance of the Erdogan regime the Syrian uprising would have been over 18 months ago. Thirty thousand dead Syrians would still be living their lives.

And as the serious people who follow these matters also know, this idea does not originate in Turkey.

Turkey gets its swagger from having the backing of the NATO gang.

Today thousands of protesters demonstrated in the streets of Turkey against Erdogan and against NATO.

They fancy themselves the heirs of Ataturk, the father of modern secular Turkey.

In some oblique sense they very well may be, but the true heirs of Ataturk are those 300 officers who Erdogan recently locked up.

Elsewhere Erdogan will continue to get away with killing his own (Kurdish) people until his NATO friends no longer find him useful.

The reason those 300 heirs of Ataturk are locked up is because they would never connive with the NATO gang to make war on their neighbor.

The longer that war drags on, the more Erdogan becomes expendable.

Erdogan being hung out to dry by Western allies

A year ago Turkey's Prime Minister was gung ho for doing the dirty work for his masters in Washington and London and Brussels. He generously made his country available as the staging ground for the jihadi hordes streaming towards Damascus to take down the infidel Assad.

The fall of the Assad regime was imminent, both he and we were assured on a daily  basis.

A year later, Assad shows no sign of weakening, the daily predictions of the imminent collapse of his regime have vanished, the cheerleading from Western media has been replaced by caution over just who those rebels might be, and Turks are taking to the streets by the tens of thousands to protest their government's strategy toward their southern neighbor.

What an irony if Assad were to outlast Erdogan!

Meanwhile, the Kurdish separatist factions have seized their moment of opportunity and are more active  than they have been for years. That puts Erdogan in the unenviable position of braying about Assad "slaughtering his own people" while he slaughters his own Kurds.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has been making reassuring noises about standing with Erdogan in the event of a war with Syria. While we should all hope that this promise will never be tested, when the stark choice becomes backing the Turks and having a regional war, or waving goodbye to Erdogan and sending our regrets, it will be bye-bye Erdogan.