George H,I mis-spoke. Of course it is the Shi'ites in southern Iraq that Saddam would kill off, not the Sunnis. My error.
The Kurds have never had a country of their own. There has never, to my knowledge, been a "Kurdistan" historically as a separate entity outside the Ottoman Empire,>
That the Kurds were ignored as a people when the "Western Powers" split up the midle east afetr the collapes of the Ottoman Empire is unfortunate. The problems they are having today could have been avoided.
But what would you have the"Wesrern Powers" do now? Go back and tAke land from Turkey and Iraq and give it to the Kurds?
" Here you are. We apologize for the oversight 80 years ago. Here's your homeland and you countries that we took this land from, well, you're just going to have to accept it."
Yeah. Right. One Israel is all we can afford right now. The Kurds will have to wait.
BTW, I did not condone the treatment of the Kurds by the turkish government. I simply pointed out the situation as it presently exists.
Gern, the "nonsense" about Saddam massing troops on the Syrian border was taken from announcments made by Saddam himself and corroborated by Israeli intelligence. Whether it was bluster and porturing is another matter. At the time of Desert Storm, Iraq had the 6th largest army in the world and Saddam has spent 10 years starving his people to build the army back up. He may be a paper tiger as you say, but remember that a ton of paper will kill you just as dead as a ton of steel if it falls on your head and paper cuts are very painful.

troll