{"id":9372,"date":"2006-07-19T23:06:21","date_gmt":"2006-07-20T06:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/07\/19\/the-real-world-is-a-messy-place.html"},"modified":"2006-07-19T23:06:21","modified_gmt":"2006-07-20T06:06:21","slug":"the_real_world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/19\/the_real_world.html","title":{"rendered":"The real world is a messy place"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Everyone wants there to be white hats and black hats.&nbsp; The white hats are the good guys &#8212; which includes us (whomever we consider us to be) plus the folks we identify as friend and allies.&nbsp; The black hats are the bad guys &#8212; the folks opposed to use and our friends and our values.<\/p>\n<p>So &#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\nTurkey is oppressive to its minority Kurd population.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>\nKurdish guerrillas, operating out of northern Iraq,&nbsp;have attacked Turkey, causing problems and bloodshed.<\/li>\n<li>\nThe Turkish government is sensitive both to its national borders and to popular sentiment within its country, which is largely in favor of doing something about Kurdish guerrillas and against Kurdish minority rights.<\/li>\n<li>\nTurkey wants to be in the European Union, badly.<\/li>\n<li>\nThe EU wants Turkey to respect Kurdish minority rights.<\/li>\n<li>\nThe US wants Iraq to be internally peaceful, and has a military (and political stake) in having it so.<\/li>\n<li>\nKurdish Iraq has been generally peaceful.<\/li>\n<li>\nThe Kurdish guerrillas are, as noted, operating out of Kurdish Iraq.<\/li>\n<li>\nThe US and Turkey are allies.<\/li>\n<li>\nThe US has used airbases in Turkey.&nbsp; It&#8217;s also let Turkey operate out of those airbases in the past to attack Kurdish guerrillas in Kurdish Iraq.<\/li>\n<li>\nIran has a Kurdish population, too, and wants to take steps to keep their Kurds under strict control.<\/li>\n<li>\nThe Kurds in Iraq want autonomy at least, and independence at most.<\/li>\n<li>\nAn independent Kurdistan would cause problems for both Turkey and Iran with their own Kurdish populations.&nbsp; They have indicated they would take preemptive action to stop it.<\/li>\n<li>\nWhile Turkey is a US ally, Iran is a US opponent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So it&#8217;s not altogether surprising that, with everything else going on, <a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/s\/ap\/20060718\/ap_on_re_as\/turkey_kurds\" target=\"_blank\">Turkey is making noises<\/a> like<a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/home\/feeds\/ap\/2006\/07\/18\/ap2887214.html\" target=\"_blank\"> it&#8217;s going to invade northern Iraq<\/a> to root out Kurdish guerrillas.<\/p>\n<p>The question is, what, if anything is the right thing for the US to do?&nbsp; Support an ally?&nbsp; Which one?&nbsp; Protect a realm it has a stake in seeing remain peaceful and stable?&nbsp; Protect the oppressed?&nbsp; Promote justice?&nbsp; Defend the rights of national sovereignty?&nbsp; And for whom?&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And, as important as the question of what is the <em>right<\/em> thing to do, what is the most <em>practical<\/em> thing to do?&nbsp; Morality and fairness and principles aside, what&#8217;s most in the US interest to see happen?<\/p>\n<p>And, given our already precarious position, are we in much of a position to do anything about either the right or the practical?<\/p>\n<p><small><\/p>\n<p>(via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boulderdude.com\/2006\/07\/speaking_of_stabbing_in_the_ba.html\" target=\"_blank\">BD<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/stupidevilbastard.com\/index\/seb\/comments\/turkey_may_end_up_invading_northern_iraq\/\" target=\"_blank\">Les<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everyone wants there to be white hats and black hats.&nbsp; The white hats are the good guys &#8212; which includes us (whomever we consider us to be) plus the folks&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical-brouhaha"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8458,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/11\/10\/illegal_letters.html","url_meta":{"origin":9372,"position":0},"title":"Illegal Letters","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 10-Nov-05 3:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yup. Some letters can get you in real trouble in some places: A Turkish court fined 20 people for using the letters Q and W on placards at a Kurdish...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Writing and Language&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Writing and Language","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/writing-and-language"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129144,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/15\/gimme-that-old-time-religion.html","url_meta":{"origin":9372,"position":1},"title":"Gimme that Old Time Religion","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 15-Dec-15 11:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Zoroastrianism is staging a come-back in Kurdistan, apparently a result of both growing Kurdish nationalism, ire at the Islamic extremism of Da'esh, and disgust with the variety of contending Islamic groups clamoring for allegiance. Thanks to Islamic extremism, Iraqi Kurds revive ancient Kurdish Zoroastrianism religion ERBIL-Hewler, Kurdistan region 'Iraq',\u2014 The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":146922,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/10\/07\/tweetizen-trump-2019-10-07-my-great-and-unmatched-wisdom.html","url_meta":{"origin":9372,"position":2},"title":"Tweetizen Trump &#8211; 2019-10-07 &#8211; &#8220;My Great and Unmatched Wisdom&#8221;","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 7-Oct-19 6:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Trump's betrayal of the Kurds is just another step in dismantling US foreign policy and reputation","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Church &amp; State&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Church &amp; State","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/church-state"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/C2pPFv-WEAAhedq.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/C2pPFv-WEAAhedq.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/C2pPFv-WEAAhedq.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":30776,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/23\/syria-as-irans-route-to-the-sea.html","url_meta":{"origin":9372,"position":3},"title":"Syria as Iran&#39;s &quot;route to the sea&quot;","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 23-Oct-12 8:57am","format":false,"excerpt":"'Secondly, Syria's an opportunity for us because Syria plays an important role in the Middle East, particularly right now. Syria is Iran's only ally in the Arab world. It's their route to the sea.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s the route for them to arm Hezbollah in Lebanon, which threatens, of course, our ally Israel.\u00a0'On\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4046,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/02\/23\/suggestions.html","url_meta":{"origin":9372,"position":4},"title":"Suggestions","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 23-Feb-03 9:15pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Max Sawicky has been lauded for his post on How to be Pro-War Without Being a Hypocrite. Since being unhypocritical is important to me, let me make a few comments...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Geopolitical Brouhaha&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44707,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/30\/who-are-the-yezidis.html","url_meta":{"origin":9372,"position":5},"title":"Who are the Yezidis?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 30-Aug-14 5:46pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Besides being kind of unfortunate to be in the way of ISIS \/ ISIS? Reshared post from +Andreas SchouSo, I hear that ISIS \/ ISIL \/ The Islamic State is attempting to commit genocide against the Yezidi. What's a Yezidi?Uh, that's a good question. The short answer: they're a Kurdish\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}