Instahoglets Sunday Edition

By Cernig

Some links worth reading on a Sunday afternoon.

- The showdown in Northern Iraq is getting closer: The Kurdish region's leader has accused Maliki's central government of trying to use troops to seize control of the disputed city and area of Kirkuk. Looks like another peshmerga/ISF armed standoff is on the cards, driven by the unpleasant reality that the Kurds have no use for a united Iraq and no-one else has a use for a seperate Kurdistan. The US can't sit this one out, but can't decide which ally's side to take.

- According to neocon hack Tim Shipman in the UK's Daily Torygraph, the new central front in the War on (Some) Terror is Britain, from which most Islamic extremist threats to the US now come. (And most Islamic extremist threats to the UK come from Afghanistan/Pakistan because of US action in creating AQ and the Taliban in those former British colonies back in the 80's, but understanding causality chains isn't a wingnut strong point.) Wanna bet we see the problem treated as the law enforcement one we DFH's have been saying it is all along? No armed Predator drones will be seen over Bradford. (H/t Kat)

- Are US liberal bloggers going to demand that torture be investigated now that the coverup is very definitely being done in their names?

- Jeff Huber looks at how one retired military media analyst made a killing from our woebegone war on terror. Gen. Barry McCaffrey (who "exemplified the confluence of Big War, Big Bucks, Big Message, Big Brother and the Big Schmooze in the new American century"), come on down! The price is right!

- A British colonel has been arrested after allegedly whistleblowing on Afghan civilian deaths to senior UN human rights researchers who this week will publish a damning report claiming that 3,000 innocent people were killed by both sides in Afghanistan in the last year - a 45% increase on the 12 months before. (h/t Kat)

- Whistling Past the Afghan Graveyard: "no one in our nation's capital is ready to believe that Afghanistan could actually be the "graveyard" for the American role as the dominant hegemon on this planet." (H/t The Heretik)