Next US President?

[Edric O]

What exactly is wrong with the Kurds claiming independence?  You seem to advocate a Kurdish genocide instigated by the Turks...

Not at all; in fact I'd love it if the Kurds gained independence, seeing how the largest political force in Turkish Kurdistan, the PKK, is a Marxist-Leninist organization. I support the PKK and I support an independent Kurdistan, but I just don't see any way that it could realistically be achieved in the forseeable future. The Turkish political establishment and military is rabidly anti-Kurd, and it is part of NATO. The NATO charter binds all members to declare war on anyone who attacks even a single one of them. Therefore an attack on Turkey is equivalent to an attack on Britain, France, Germany, the United States and all other NATO members put together. There is no hope of victory against such odds. Unless NATO is dissolved or Turkey is kicked out, there can be no Kurdistan.

[Dunenewt]

Hmm I understand what you are saying, but NATO is largely defunct, and Turkey is the sick man of Europe that no-one likes anyway, so I can see most people looking the other way if Turkey got attacked.  The US even put pressure on Turkey to stop their attacks on the PKK in Iraq.

[Edric O]

Turkey isn't really the sick man of Europe, and in any case it is the very healthy man of the Middle East. Powerful, more stable than most countries in that region, and reliably pro-Western. Neither the US nor Israel nor any European country is going to throw away such a valuable ally. If the Kurds set up an independent state in northern Iraq, the Turks will invade and the West will protest and complain but do nothing. Maybe put some diplomatic pressure on Turkey, but that's it.

I mean, look at northern Cyprus. That region is currently controlled by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a self-proclaimed independent state recognized by no country except Turkey, which infringes upon the sovereign territory of a EU member state - Cyprus. But no one is even pointing an angry finger at Turkey for supporting it. If they can get away with that, they can certainly get away with repressing the Kurds.

[Anathema]

Turkey isn't really the sick man of Europe, and in any case it is the very healthy man of the Middle East. Powerful, more stable than most countries in that region, and reliably pro-Western. Neither the US nor Israel nor any European country is going to throw away such a valuable ally. If the Kurds set up an independent state in northern Iraq, the Turks will invade and the West will protest and complain but do nothing. Maybe put some diplomatic pressure on Turkey, but that's it.

I mean, look at northern Cyprus. That region is currently controlled by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a self-proclaimed independent state recognized by no country except Turkey, which infringes upon the sovereign territory of a EU member state - Cyprus. But no one is even pointing an angry finger at Turkey for supporting it. If they can get away with that, they can certainly get away with repressing the Kurds.

I'm a little rusty on the details, but the immediate cause of the invasion was an attempted coup by Greek Cypriots who wanted a union with Greece proper (ruled by a military junta at the time) I'd say it was a good move.

As for the here and now...a couple of years ago there was a dual referendum in both parts, where the Turkish part said yes and the Greek part said no to reunifaction.

[Dunenewt]

They weren't voting no to the reunification, just to the terms on it.  The Greek Cypriot majority were unfortunately denied any real chance of unification with Greece, because of a Turkish feeling of insecurity.

[Anathema]

I think enosis only refers to "re"unifaction with the Greek mainland.

While I can understand why even the common Greek Cypriots would want Enosis, I fully blame Eoka-B and its supporters for the inability of both populations to live with eachother. I don't blame the Turkish cypriots at all for not wanting to be an even smaller minority in a military dictatorship dominated by Greek colonels.

AFAIK the reason why so many Greek Cypriots voted against reunification (other than spite) is that they feared that not all of the lands would be repatriated that were taken when the north became "independent". Wich seems kind of smelly to me, since many T.C. were also forced to abandon their houses during the partition, but I don't suppose that's of any real importance...

[Dunenewt]

Actually, there were just about no Turk Cypriots who lost land.  If the majority of the population wanted enosis, then it should have been allowed.  Unfortunately, my country did not see it that way at the time, and so prevented it, although we also did not want the Turks to invade.  A US naval force was actually sent to dissuade Turkey, but it failed.

[Anathema]

"Just about no" would be an exaggeration, though there were of course many more Greeks who lost land.

The thing is that the Turkish military took a large amount of land (over a third, while the T.C. originally only constituted about a fifth of the population) and further filled the island with settlers from Anatolia. The fact that Ankara started f*cking up the demographics of the country however doesn't change the fact that they were fully in the right to intervene when the Greek Cypriots launched a coup against the legitimate government.

[Dunenewt]

That depends on the definition of a legitimate government though.  Also, how did Turkey have the right to intervene in the Cypriot's internal problems?

[Andrew]

Breaking news today that Obama has got the nomination.

Obama clinches nomination, Clinton open to VP slot

woot.

Now the democrats can get together and focus on crushing the republicans in the election.

[jeff2429]

[Khan]

LOL. Seriously though he has no chance.

[exatreide]

Obama is ahead in most polls...

but How about a Obama/Gore ticket?

Obama gore for four more? bwahaha

[Andrew]

Obama flip flopped.

Remember when he said he would renegotiate NAFTA (because Hillary said she would)? Well he is not going to do that now. He blamed it in political rhetoric. I wonder what other political rhetoric he said that will not be true.

How do you tell when a politician lies? When they open their mouths.

[exatreide]

Thats why you should vote Nader?  ;)

[Andrew]

John McCain ultimate flip flop video about Iraq War

Wow just wow. Shows how much McCain was for the war and Bush, and how he now says he was against the war and Bush.

Of course video like this will never be shown on mainstream television, or he will never be shown this type of video showing he is lying.

Definitely watch if you want to know what McCain really thinks about Iraq war.

[Anathema]

I can't be bothered to sit out that clip entirely, but where did he say he was against the war? I skipped to the end and all I heard was him saying that he'd not change his opinion just because the polls disagree with it. I happen to like that stance, if you disagree with his opinions you should vote for someone else.

[nemafakei]

2.38 and following contradicts the previous two minutes.

[Anathema]

Those soundbites are misleading. He disagrees with the strategy being used in the war, but believed the war itself to be worthwile and that Iraq was becoming more stabile overall.

If you call that a flipflop, what do you call Obama's retroactive optimism about Petraeus' surge?

[nemafakei]

But he said the war was well-planned at 1.34, whereas at 2.48, he says that Bush pursued a failed policy.

I call that a contradiction. Ok, perhaps he's changed his mind. But no: at 2.50, he says he's always been the greatest critic of the first three and a half or four years. He claims to have bitterly disagreed with the strategy.

Additionally 2.20 he is confident of a short victory; 7.25, 7.39 he says a long time and suggests a hundred years. Sure, that's just a change of forecast, but it's an interesting reflection. And it really is a stunning thing to get wrong, considering the number of excess deaths that have taken place since Bush flew the "Mission Accomplished" flag.

"what do you call Obama's retroactive optimism about Petraeus' surge?"

Quite possibly the same, I've not seen that video/text/etc. But then I don't particularly think Obama is much less corrupt than any other politician.

[Purge]

What exactly is wrong with the Kurds claiming independence?  You seem to advocate a Kurdish genocide instigated by the Turks...

Agreed.  Iraq has never in history been one entity.  Even in the ancient days there was Assyria in the north and Babylonia in the south.  The only time they were one entity was when one was imposing themself on the other, or when an entirely foreign power (such as Persia or Greece) was imposing themself on both.  The Kurds got the shaft when the British and French were handing over large pieces of land of the Arabs - who largely had no part whatsoever in bringing down the Ottomans.  The fact is the Kurds represent pretty much everything American wishes they could get out of the Arabs.  They have basically been running and administering over themselves for the past decade and a half, and function much more smoothly than the Arabs section of Iraq.

[Andrew]

Campaign contributions from oil industry executives to Sen. John McCain rose dramatically in the last half of June, after the senator from Arizona made a high-profile split with environmentalists and reversed his opposition to the federal ban on offshore drilling.

More proof that corporations control America. Your vote is useless. I'm Sure Obama recieved millions in campaign contributions from corporations for doing what they want.

Same thing in Canada with Liberal MP receiving funds to try and push through the DMCA. Th only difference being in Canada we can vote out the dickheads who do this. It happened during the last election with the person who got $ from RIAA/MPAA and tried changing the law. She got voted out. I expect the same to happen with the current PC guy trying to push DMCA through.

[Dante]

Obligatory JibJab link

[Anathema]

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/obamas_overstatement.html

Deals with the supposed McCain/big oil axis.

[Anathema]

:D