ARTICLE: Americans Say U.S. Is Losing War: Public, Politicians Split on Iraq Panel's Ideas, By Peter Baker and Jon Cohen, Washington Post, December 13, 2006; Page A01
The news that most Americans think we're losing is both telling and sad. Telling because it means we're losing this 4GW struggle. Sad because we've not educated our own citizens as to what "victory" would look like. Obviously, it wouldn't look like Iraq does now, but it won't look that terribly different for a while either, because as we learned in the Balkans, some blood-letting and some self-separation is inevitable.
Truth is, as ugly as the Balkans were, that's "victory"--plain and real. And no, it doesn't look like V-E or V-J day. In fact, victory comes years after the last acts of mass violence have ended (during which time countless scores are settled on an individual basis--either legally or extra-legally).

But Americans define victory in this context as one thing: our deaths end and we leave. Done fast, it's victory, no matter how meaningless the outcome. Done slow, it's a loss no matter what good is achieved.

Is that unrealistic? Sure. But we like our wars like our movies: clear winners and clear losers and all wrapped up within our 24-hour media cycle.

olumns Don't Panic!

Why are Iraq's Kurds upset with the Iraq Study Group report?
Your war questions answered
By Andisheh Nouraee
Published 12.13.2006
http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=167982

The Iraq Study Group report, which alleges to offer recommendations by which the United States can "de-quagmirify" itself from Iraq, is a bummer. By all means, keep it off your Amazon.com wish list. You'd be better off with a seventh copy of Marley & Me.

It's not the grim assessment of U.S. options in Iraq that gets me down. I saw that coming. What I didn't see coming was the report's painful stupidity.

For example, take this passage: "If the situation continues to deteriorate, the consequences could be severe. A slide toward chaos could trigger the collapse of Iraq's government and a humanitarian catastrophe. Neighboring countries could intervene. Sunni-Shia clashes could spread. Al Qaeda could win a propaganda victory and expand its base of operations. The global standing of the United States could be diminished. Americans could become more polarized."

Yowza! Did it really take a blue ribbon of former secretaries of state and defense the better part of a year to "warn" us about something that has already happened? This just in: I predict that San Francisco will be leveled by an earthquake in 1906. Report to follow.

As it turns out, I'm not the only person saying "WTF?" to the ISG.

President Bush has signaled to reporters that he's not very keen on the report's recommendations that he pull out the bulk of U.S. troops by 2008 and begin diplomatic negotiations with Syria and Iran ASAP. His nose-thumbing might be real, or it might be a "stay the course cuz I'm the decider" head fake before he embraces the report's call to cut and run. Did I say cut and run? I meant "phased redeployment." My bad.

Among those most upset about the Iraq Study Group report -- but among those whose upset you will hear about least in the coming days -- are Iraq's Kurds.

In a nutshell, Kurds are worried that the ISG's recommendations, if implemented, will screw them over. Say what?

The report makes a big deal about unity, reconciliation and regional cooperation in Iraq. Americans may like the sound of those words, but to Iraq's Kurds, they're code words implying that Kurds will be asked to give up all of, if not all of, what they want.

What is it that Iraq's Kurds want?

They want independence. Not now, but soon. In a non-binding referendum last year, 98.5 percent of Kurds affirmed their preference for an independent Kurdish state. The remaining 1.5 percent inadvertently voted for Pat Buchanan.

The ISG report includes several recommendations that could slow or stop Kurdish independence.

First, the ISG wants to delay a proposed vote that would allow Iraqi Kurds to annex the oil-rich, multiethnic city of Kirkuk to their autonomous region of Iraq. The ISG thinks a vote would lead to increased bloodshed. Kurds believe that Kirkuk is rightfully theirs. It's their Jerusalem, their spiritual, economic and political capital. In their view, it was stolen from them by Saddam Hussein, and any effort to stop them from getting it back is an affront.

Secondly, the ISG proposes that Iraq's central government control the country's oil revenues so that they can be shared equally among Iraq's ethnic and religious groups. The Kurds, who live atop a disproportionate share of Iraq's oil, don't want to share oil revenue with anyone, least of all the Sunni Arab Iraqis who oppressed and murdered them so prolifically.

Thirdly, the ISG recommends that neighboring Turkey be invited into regional negotiations about Iraq. Turkey's interest in Iraq is to make sure that Kurds never-ever declare independence from Iraq. Turkey fears that Kurdish independence from Iraq will spur Turkey's large Kurdish population to try to break off from Turkey and join independent Kurdistan.

Iraq's Kurds heard alarm bells when they saw the ISG request for Turkey to be at the negotiating table. Iraq's Kurds are worried that their interests will be sacrificed for the sake of pleasing Turkey. To some Kurds, the ISG report is a prelude to yet another betrayal by the United States of Kurdish nationalism. I'll talk about that more next week.

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Bush Talks Iraq Strategy With Talibani, Barzani

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Continuing a recent round of talks with Iraqi leaders, President George W. Bush spoke Wednesday with Iraqi President Jalal Talibani and Kurdistan regional president Massoud Barzani.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush discussed his ongoing review of U.S. strategy in Iraq, the results of which he's expected to unveil next month. During the two 15-minute conversations, Bush sought Talibani and Barzani's views on the way forward in Iraq.

The president's high-profile review of Iraq strategy has included talks this month with Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, and Abdul-Aziz al- Hakim, the leader of the largest Shiite bloc in the Iraqi parliament.

Talibani recently assailed the Iraq Study Group's recommendations on curbing the bloodshed in Iraq, calling the panel's report "an insult to the people of Iraq." Snow said Talibani did not repeat that view during his conversation with Bush.

In addition to discussing broad Iraq strategy, the leaders talked about efforts to reach an agreement on Iraq's hydrocarbon law. That law, which would govern the distribution of oil and natural gas revenue, is hung up over specifics of how the money would be divided among Iraq's different factions. The law is crucial for Iraq as a basis for international oil companies to begin discussions on investment into the country's underexploited and run-down hydrocarbon sector and to generate much-needed reconstruction revenue for the country's coffers.

"We've talked in recent days about a moderate bloc that has Sunni, Shia and Kurdish leaders, and both men fit into that moderate bloc and pledged their cooperation, not merely in building broader support for the government but also taking action against those who want to destabilize it through acts of terror," Snow said of Talibani and Barzani.

-By Henry J. Pulizzi, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9256; henry.pulizzi@ dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-13-061128ET
Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

World Bank Provides Loan For Iraqi Hydropower Project

(RFE/RL)
WASHINGTON, December 13, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The World Bank announced today a $40 million loan to finance repair work on two Iraqi hydroelectric power stations located in the Kurdistan region.

The bank said the project will help improve electricity supplies in Iraq.

It said the repairs are badly needed at the two power plants, in Dokan and Derbandikhan.

Young talents at the 4th Kurdish Film Festival

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

KurdishMedia.com - By Rzgar Said

I am delighted to see so many young Kurdish film makers at the 4th Kurdish Film festival in London. Young Kurdish talents who were born in Europe write, produce and direct their own short films with great skills, simplicity in term of structure and important story elements told in a basic narrative which is clear to the audience.

At the end of each short movie I felt a powerful punch that shocked the audience in term of a dramatic development. For instance, “A Kurdish-Turkish Sunday” by Mehmet Aksoy, which is a tale of one Sunday, the lives of four teenagers reach crisis point when they were passing time by. In a courageous way drugs and sex were depicted, things that were taboos for previous generations of filmmakers.

In “The Boots” by Taban Yassen, a young Kurdish actress who livesg in Bristol (she is well known back home in Kurdistan for her brave acting in many Kurdish series on the national TV) tells the story of how black boots became a symbol of destruction during the Iraq’s Baathist regime which smashed art and tortured artists. An artist who was imprisoned and tortured explores his painful memories by making the statue of Saddam from boots and sets fire to it in his prison after he has been freed after the fall of Saddam’s regime. She got the story very fast in term of establishment, it is not over loaded and she said one simple stylish effective story in a basic limit.

In “Delalo” by Beri Shalmashi a young Iranian Kurdish girl who was born in France and currently lives in Holland, tells the story of a young Kurdish refugee, Azad, who has escaped the oppression of his homeland but is still haunted by memories of it. Can he finally move on? Maybe or maybe not. He is trying to jump into the river, will he jump or not? I think he will jump, but Beri Shalmashi leaves it for the audience to answer that as she tries to alienate the audience from that bit of the plot when it reaches the climax. Beri is a brilliant script writer. She doesn’t keep things in her head but shows them in the shots in a very particular style. Above all the End for her is a choice for the audience.