According to the regional prime minister of the Kurds the 2000 Kurds who stormed and burned the monument in Halabja were fired up by outsiders, Islamic radicals.  So, the Kurds are not really protesting anything, it’s those outsiders.  And in Iraq?  It’s not Iraqis who are the insurgents or the violent sectarians, no, it’s Iranians, Al Queda, Syrians…Therefore, the people with the dirty hands are absolved.  It’s the people’s fault for following outsiders.  Neat trick if you can get away with it.

So rioters in northern Kurdistan have burned down the museum that honors the martyrs of Saddam Husein’s poison gas attack on the town of Halabja eighteen years ago today.  What’s made these Kurds angry, according to the article, is the corruption and greed of the P.U.K , whose leaders use money donated to the museum for their own purposes.  It seems that The museum is the Kurdish equivalent of ground zero in NYC, since it’s where visiting dignataries are taken to show them what a demon Saddam was.  What’s puzzling, though,is that the rioters destroyed a sign that warned Baathists not to enter the museum.    Why would they do that?  Could it be that they distinguish between Saddam (“evil”) and the Baath party (not so “evil”, maybe)? 
I’ve has some doubts as to the allegiance of the Kurds ever since visiting Kirkuk (one year after the Gulf War I.), where at an assembly of about 400 workers,  the prevailing sentiment expressed was decidely and vociferouly pro-Baath  
Sure,  It was difficult to know how much this pro-Baathism applied to the whole of Kurdistan,  since Kirkuk is a disputed territority (much like Kansas was before our own Civil War), with Kurdistan and Iraq each claiming it as their own.  Now, with this new “Front” opening up in northern Kurdistan,  perhaps those workers were reflecting popular sentiment, after all?  If so,  that’s one more reason to bring our troops home now!