From the Herald Tribune, billing itself as "Australia's biggest selling newspaper", comes the headline "Bush offers to bomb Kurds".
According to an official familiar with the conversation, Mr Bush assured the Turkish President that the US was seriously looking into options beyond diplomacy to stop the attacks coming from Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.
"It's not 'Kumbaya' time any more - just talking about trilateral talks is not going to be enough," the official said.
"Something has to be done."
While the use of US soldiers on the ground to root out the PKK would be the last resort, the US would be willing to launch air strikes on PKK targets, the official said, and has discussed the use of cruise missiles.
The same Kurds we have been protecting since 1991. The same Kurds whose aspirations for freedom and self-governance were one of the spurs for Christopher Hitchens to go to the dark side (one wonders if he will sober up long enough to realize that, when you make a deal with the devil, the devil always reneges, and mortals always lose). The same Kurds who have been such a haven of peace and tranquility in a nation that we have otherwise destroyed. This is stupid to the googoleplex power.
