So I finally got around to reading The Great Terror, a long article from the New Yorker by Jeffrey Goldberg. It’s a wide ranging article that covers Iraq’s chemical (and possibly biological) attacks on its Kurdish population back in 1988. It goes on to talk a bit about the miserable history of the Kurds (they’ve been betrayed by just about everybody, just like the Afghans), Iraq’s possible collaberation with Al Qaeda, and Iraq’s ongoing chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programs.

The article seems to be well researched, but it’s also obviously slanted. The article seems to be written so as to justify going to war against Iraq, and is uniformly pro-Kurd. There’s no question that the Kurds have been horribly mistreated by Turkey and Iraq, but Kurds have committed plenty of bad acts themselves, none of which are mentioned in the article. It also paints the most dire picture possible of Iraqi’s relationship with Al Qaeda, and of Iraq’s nuclear weapons program.

Maybe the article is completely accurate, and every other estimate is wrong, but it seems to lack balance to a certain degree. Anyway, regardless, it’s an article that’s worth reading. Just keep in mind that it’s a data point, not the end all and be all.