The New York Times' Tom Friedman appears to have concluded (without evidence) he can write usefully about domestic politics. Perhaps he reasoned, with some justice, the Middle East is a lost cause, a slough of despond that cannot be drained.
Friedman's defection leaves Michael J. Totten as the best explicator of Middle East affairs, writing here in Middle East Forum, Today Totten writes in support of the Iraqi Kurds, who will soon hold a referendum on independence from Iraq. Hat tip to Power Line for the link.
As we've noted in the past, Kurdish nationhood will incense the Turks, who fear an enhanced independence movement among their own sizable Kurdish minority. Totten writes that Iraq's Kurds are the most pro-American population in the region, and the only group governing (and defending) itself with a degree of sanity, if not of honesty.
COTTonLINE has seen many references to Kurds as the closest thing the region has to deserving the title of "good people." The Trump administration should change its mind, support their desire for statehood, and gain an ally in that tough neighborhood.
