[LATER: Error. They aren’t having a good time IN Kobani, merely ABOUT Kobani. As commenter “Nicholas”, to whom thanks, points out, and as it clearly states just underneath the bigger version of the photo if you follow the second link below, this demo actually took place in Diyarbakir, which is in southeastern Turkey. As Nicholas pointed out, that explains why the buildings in the picture are not ruined. Apologies for my carelessness. But the important thing I got right. They are cute young women.]
It must be ages since we’ve had a posting here featuring a picture of cute young women having a good time. I miss those times. So here is a picture of some cute young women having a good time:
They are Kurdish young women celebrating the liberation of Kobani from ISIS. Thank you Mick Hartley for spotting it, in amongst all these shots, most of which are much more depressing.
Says Hartley:
If the Kurds get a state out of the current chaos in Syria/Iraq, at least there’ll be something positive to come out of the whole catastrophe.
Indeed. If you ever had any doubts about which side you are on out there, that photo should lay your doubts to rest. I’m not saying it will, mind you. I’m just saying that it should.
The media reports are all full of caveats about how this is not even the beginning of the end, blah blah, and maybe it isn’t. But I agree with all those who say that ISIS is all about momentum, and that if ISIS is now losing momentum, that’s very good.
Given what was at stake, this seems more like “young women expressing tremendous relief at avoiding the horrendous fate they feared.” But one way or another, good for them and good for the Kurds in general.
I have long advocated that we should carve out a big chunk of northern Iraq and make a Kurdish state. Then we should lease a 100 square mile chunk of it from them, for a dollar a year, and build a big air base there – right where it would be really fucking useful to us tactically.
Subsequently, we should base our entire foreign policy in the region on maintaining an axis of friendship with the only two countries there worth befriending – Israel and (Kurdvania?) The rest of the terrorist-enabling bastards could then be cheerfully invited to take a long walk off a short pier.
I am not saying that the post is necessarily implying this but I should point out that this picture is from Turkey not Kobani.
From accompanying description “Kurdish women flash the victory sign during a rally on January 27 in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, following news that Kurdish fighters drove ISIS from Kobani”
Yes – and unlike the happy ladies pictured some years ago, in the false dawn in Lebanon, these young women understand the primary importance of having weapons and killing your enemies – before you have a good time.
Bombadil,
Best idea of the decade. Love it.
Longest wait in history:
Obama to announce $1 billion aid package to Kurds in rebuilding their cities after Obama’s friends have destroyed it. Waiting…waiting…waiting…..
Should have realised- too many still-standing buildings for this to be Kobani! Still, let’s hope this is soon the norm throughout the region.
John Galt III: Not that I am a fan of stimulus spending at all, but if we abso-fucking-lutely have to have it, and if we are going to have it anyway (since the Keynesians are firmly in the drivers seat) why not in the form of subsidies to US construction companies to go and rebuild the Kurdish areas?
All this talk of a Kurdish state, despite the Marxist thugs who will run it, and it being far too dangerous for Turkey and Iran to contemplate reminds me of the old test.
‘Can you name two American States beginning with ‘P’?’
‘Er,… Pennsylvania… and… Philadelphia?’
‘Pennsylvania yes, but Philadelphia is a city.’
‘Oh, yes, er,… Dunno.’
‘Pearl Harbor is the other.’
‘Pearl Harbor? That’s not a State!’
‘It was when the Japs left it’.
We. the people in Taiwan, admired very much the fortitude spirits of Kurdish people in their determination to fight off Deasch(IS). Kurdish young people either girls or boys take up arms to defend their territory with their own strength.
We sincerely hope Kurdish people can establish their own country stretching from Iran. Irak, Turkey and Syria. the 35 million Kurds worldwide should consolidate together in establishing their own country soon. For humanitarian aids to Kurdish refugees in Turkey , Taiwanese government has donated US$2 million to Ebil via USA helping the refugees to tide over the harsh winter. WE stand by with courageous Kurdish people in their fight for freedom and a final sovereign country.
Actually much as the PKK/PYD might wish otherwise, the Marxists in Kurdish Syria and Kurdish Turkey have been consistently outmanoeuvred politically by the centrist pro-Western Masoud Barzani in Erbil in the race to take the pre-eminent role in leading The Kurds. It is very clear that the political, military and above all economic centre of power is now in Southern Kurdistan (i.e. Iraqi Kurdistan).
I am guessing that if we used our not inconsiderable influence in the region to gain enough territory for the Kurds to form a state, it might give us a slight bit of pull with them.
And frankly, at this point in the game I would rather deal with Marxists than radical Islamists. Although I admit my preference for Marxists is only by comparison; mild Euro-socialists or even (dare we hope) some form of moderately market-supporting capitalist would be even better.
Nicholas
Thanks for pointing out the IN Kobani error. I have inserted a correction just below the title of the posting. The title is definitely wrong.
Isn’t their behaviour a trifle derogatory?
(Editor sez: Interesting enough for me to use the link in a post but UTTERLY off topic for this thread)
Guys, guys, pay attention 😀 the winning team both politically and militarily is not the valiant but Marxist PKK/PYD in Turkey and Rojava. The Kurds in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) are still on the defensive on both scores regardless of the glorious defensive triumph in Kobane. It is the altogether less political unfortunate Iraqi Kurds in Erbil who are actually on a roll. The Peshmerga have made very significant offensive gains, actually pushing back the Daesh Islamic State from their turf over a wide area… and politically they are THE Kurds when it comes to influence in Washington.
If the most cheery prospects for improving liberty is that the least bad* faction of Kurds should come out on top, you might think that the cause of liberty is stuck down a deep, greasy-walled well.
*by a country mile.
Least bad? The Barzani lead government of the KRG would hardly be out of place in Europe. It actually has a *real* democracy and the main opposition is now the Gorran Movement, who are overtly secularist free market supporters.
What I want to know, Perry, is when they last stoned a woman to death for adultery, or cut off a journalist’s head while ululating for the camera, or set off a suicide bomb in a market? When was the last time they attacked an embassy over some cartoons?
If they tend to do those things rather less often, whatever their views on markets and parliamentary procedure, then I think maybe I prefer them to the towel-wrapped scumbags currently running the show in much of that part of the world.
I know a couple in the KRG area (they live near Kirkuk) who are a Christian-Muslim mixed marriage, all their neighbours know, and could not care less. I think that kind of thing is rather telling.
Talking of offensive cartoons, beavers have been found in the wild in Devon, the Greens might find today’s Matt cartoon offensive.
This article about some of the Kurdish women soldiers who died in that fight has a very different tone but also illustrates some of the same themes:
‘We are so proud’ – the women who died defending Kobani against Isis
They didn’t live to celebrate the victory they helped win, and it would not be respectful to call them cute, but the images of these young women, with their heads mostly uncovered, proudly dressed for combat but with little touches of adornment and a certain acknowledgement in their stance that they looked good and knew it, present such a contrast to the shrouded women (enslaved or malevolent, who can tell?) living in the IS.
Brian, I am NOT the same person as Nicholas! It was ME, Nicholas (Natural Genius) Gray, who pointed out all the unruined buildings in the background. I am not worried about credit this time, but this is why I do not settle for plain Nicholas. I am sure that NickM also wants the differences noticed.
The Turkish Army is passing through Kobane today, to relieve their troops in a tiny, apparently portable Turkish enclave of sorts in Syria, the tomb of Suleyman Shah, now for Erdogan, a kind of Gleiwitz Radio station just waiting for an incident, if reports are to be believed.