Update

So, it looks like there have been a few changes since I last posted.

I'll work on getting us caught up shortly, but for now let me leave you with Michael Rubin's sobering article in Commentary:

The senselessness Kurdish crackdown not only puts to rest the notion that Iraqi Kurdistan is a democracy but also should cause introspection about why so many Americans assume Barzani and Talabani are U.S. allies.

In hindsight, their embrace of the United States during its liberation of Iraq had more to do with power and money than ideology. Qubad Talabani has bragged of the CIA money Barzani and Jalal Talabani have received. Bribery worked for a while, but the U.S. government may no longer be the biggest paymaster. On February 11, Talabani’s party held a celebration in Sulaimani in honor of Iran’s Islamic Revolution; Barzani’s did too. Israelis embrace Barzani with the same naivete with which they did Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, not realizing that both would sell them to the Iranians for the right price.

Kurdish officials also count on Americans’ having short attentions spans: they brag about their exploits fighting Saddam but seldom mention how Barzani used to ally himself with Saddam when it aided his power and pocketbook. In the Middle East, power always trumps principle.

Read the rest at the link.