A man in the arena

The single unalloyed good that has resulted from the Iraq War is the freeing of Kurdistan. The Kurds have been knocked around and subjugated by the Arabs of the region for centuries. It was Kurdish men, women, and children that Saddam gassed. Under the protection of the no-fly zone, the Kurds developed two stable political regimes. Now that Saddam is gone, they are have an autonomous region within a Federal Iraq. Even if the nightmare scenario happened and Iraq falls into a civil war, Kurdistan would probably remain intact and become an independent country.

Americans always forget our friends in faraway places. Few of us realize that Australia has fought alongside us in every major conflict for the last one hundred years. Almost no one seems to know that Thailand is a staunch U.S. ally, and they fought with us in Korea and Vietnam. The Kurds are thanking us with commercials on U.S. TV. Let us hope that the next administration does not forget them.