Our friends the Kurds.

President Bush in his last State of the Union speech had this to say:

And to the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you.

I can’t tell! Do not the Kurds in Iran count as Iranian people? Civil demonstrations and protests in Iran’s north-west Kurdish regions has Iranian troops and Islamic vigilantes cracking down with brutal force resulting in scores dead. What, you haven’t heard this? The MSM for whatever reason really haven’t given this much coverage. While media access to Iran is limited by the Mullahs, Kurdish and Iranian opposition sources are available but ignored. Shahin B. Sorekli at KurdishMedia asks:

Why is it that the shooting of an Israeli or Palestinian (although unfortunate and sad) is shown over and over by TV channels such as BBC and CNN, leave Al Jazira TV aside, while the shooting of at least 13 Kurds and several large demonstrations in the Kurdish regions of Iran remain unmentioned?

That question answers itself, you can't blame Jews, Bush, the military, or even America for this. If those factors don't apply then expect more coverage of the latest Abu Grahaib allegations than on what is actually happening to the Kurds.

We expect as much from the MSM. But the Bush administration hasn’t had much to say either. For a little background Gerald A. Honigman gives an historical account of how Britain, whose Navy was switching from coal to oil, gave in to it’s WWI Arab allies, abandoning Jewish, Kurdish, and Sudanese national aspirations. The resulting Balkanization of these Middle Eastern countries leaves us with large ethnic minorities in those Arab countries and the resulting atrocities used to subjugate and suppress those minorities. In the case of the Kurds, we’re talking about Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. Turkey is allegedly an ally, although when we needed them they told us to kick rocks. We don't want to anger Turkey by supporting Kurds, they are a persecuted minority in Turkey and support of Kurds elsewhere might encourage Turkish Kurds to fight for their basic human rights. Can’t have that. Likewise Iraq. The U.S. and Britain are pressuring the Kurds to compromise on Kirkuk and federalism. Basically we are asking the Kurds to give up the autonomy they have had since GWI and hope a Shi'ite controlled government later gives it back. Same with the historic capital of Southern Kurdistan, the oil rich region of Kirkuk. The Kurds recognize that they need constitutional protection from Shi'ite majority tyranny. But Bush doesn't want to rock the boat, hoping that this region that has never seen Democracy will eventually put national interests ahead of religious and tribal loyalties. He's hoping the Democrats will do the same. A hopeless hope on both accounts.

Along with Israel the Kurds are our greatest allies in the Middle East. But just as we expect Israel to bend over backwards in dealing with their enemies we expect the Kurds to do the same. It's time instead to support our allies and tell our enemies to kick rocks. Iraq doesn't stand much of a chance as long as Syria, Iran, and Iran's favorite terrorist organization Hammas continue as they are. Support for the Kurds in all of the countries that are trying to keep them down is in our best interest, and no more so than in Iran.

Update:

Michael Ledeen gives us some insight on why politicians will turn a deaf ear on information that they don’t want to have to act on. Mr. Ledeen was present at a meeting in 2001 in Rome with Manucher Ghorbanifar, an Iranian expatriate who provided information to the Pentagon. "That meeting produced very high-quality information that we did not have, which, according to American armed forces in Afghanistan, saved American lives," Mr. Ledeen has said. However, the CIA and State Department took steps to shut down the information channel. Later Rumsfeld gave orders that Pentagon officials were forbidden to talk to Iranians, period.

This is similar to the “Able Danger” affair where the 911 hijackers were identified in 1999 by a classified military intelligence unit. Ledeen says:

We have two cases where life-saving information was available, but the system refused to accept it, because the political considerations were more important. In the Weldon story, the administration didn't want to know about terrorist groups operating inside the United States. In the Rome story, they didn't want to know about Iranian groups killing Americans. In the first case, we'd have had to act against sleeper cells, which is a very nasty business. In the second case, we'd have had to act against the biggest terror sponsor in the Middle East, another can of worms. Better to pretend we didn't know, hope that nothing terrible would happen, and concentrate on career advancement.

Atlas Shrugs has some graphic pictures of the atrocities the Mullahs are inflicting on Kurdish children!