brendan @ 151:

From your wiki linky:

Franken is opposed to the 2007 troop surge in Iraq, and has been a vocal critic of the war for several years; however, he supported the invasion at the time (a fact he often admitted, with regret, on his radio program). In an interview with the MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough[21], Franken said he “believed Colin Powell”, whose UN presentation convinced him that the war was necessary. Franken now believes that Congress should refuse to pass appropriations bills to fund the war if they don’t include timetables for leaving Iraq.

What’s the point of your bold? That his “regret” means something? People who rob banks and get caught “regret” it, too.

Billmon, come home. All is forgiven!

Lehtinen is drowning in the Iraqi, Palestinian and lebanese peoples blood and she could care less.

Next on her list is Iran.

Hello congress if you have not noticed the American public does not feeling very confident in your ability to govern honestly or fairly.

Helpless Dancer @ 122

Any accommodation between the Turks and the Kurds is going to involve territorial concessions. That also is true for the Iranian Kurds. While I don’t know about the Iranians, I do know that the Turks are dead set against it. It might be a good thing in the long run to create a formal Kurdistan, but I don’t think that either Turkey or Iran will cooperate in the short term.

This is simply wrong. The issue of territorial changes has not been raised by either the Turks or the Iraqi Kurds. It would certainly be a deal breaker if it existed but it doesn’t. Elimination of PKK bases, economic ties, easing up on Iraqi Turkoman in exchange for easing up on Turkish Kurds, accommodation on Kirkuk, these are the kind of things a deal would address.

If the Iraqi Kurds succeed in creating an independent Kurdistan in the north of Iraq, it will cause great pressure among Turkish Kurds to join. One one hand that would require a mass movement of Kurds into Iraq, or on the other hand, Turkey allowing secession of the territory that they occupy. On the gripping hand, they can continue the suppression of Turkish Kurds and thus keep the status quo. These tensions have been building for generations and the Turkish oppression of the Kurds hasn’t helped at all.

I am more convinced that the ‘quagmire” is exactly what the radical crazies wanted in Iraq. Who cares how many Iraqi people are displaced or killed in the process of Israel and the U.S. controlling the resources and expanding their influcence in the middle east/

And then we will blame them for the enviroment that the invasion created for sectarian violence and a genocide to take place.