In Iraq, Kurds Train to Battle Iran

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2007/feb/02/020206113.html

Deep in the mountains of eastern Iraq, a cluster of mud huts and the chatter of machine gun fire reveal another piece of the jigsaw puzzle called Kurdistan.

Here, recruits are training to fight Iran, one of the four countries that rule the fractured Kurdish people. And although they belong to an organization officially outlawed as terrorist by Washington, they appear to be operating unhindered from Iraqi territory controlled by U.S. forces.

A boulder-studded road spirals up through sun-soaked mountains to a pale yellow building that flies the flag of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), condemned as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and its NATO ally, Turkey.

A giant face of Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK founder who is serving a life sentence in Turkey, is painted on the mountainside. Ten miles farther on lies the Qandil range, which runs like a snow-dusted spine along Iraq's northern border with both Turkey and Iran.

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[insidious]

1. Interesting

Saddam gassed them for fighting WITH Iran during the Iraq/Iran war and now they are training to fight against them. Hmmm, interesting place that the fucking asshole-in-chief is wasting our tax dollars and lives. Just think, in about 20 years they will probably show us their appreciation for being allowed to operate "unhindered" by plotting terrorist attacks and following in the footsteps of Reagan's boys at Al-Qaeda.