Mickey Kaus notes a story I heard myself on NPR this morning: that Human Rights Watch has conducted independent interviews with POW's who surrendered to Kurdish forces in Northern Iraq. Kaus notes the interviewer's conclusions that the Iraqi's suffered terrible treatment at the hands of their own commanders, but he breezes right by the other major news of the piece:

"The Iraqi soldiers all reported good treatment by the Kurdish forces to whom they had surrendered....All of the detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that they had been treated well by the Kurdish Pesh Merga—from the frontline to the camp. Many stated that they were surprised at how welcoming the Pesh Merga were, especially as they had been told by their officers that Kurdish forces would kill them if they surrendered."

Just because it's to be expected that POW's are well-treated by our side in this war doesn't mean it's not news! And in fact, since these prisoners aren't being held directly by our forces (if I'm understanding their situation correctly), the report is even more newsworthy: this is a small, but important piece of concrete evidence that the Kurds aren't out for payback from the decades of mistreatment Saddam's forces have given them.

Kudos to Human Rights Watch for noting the good treatment --- though I'd be happier if they played up this aspect of the story more loudly --- would it be too much to ask to have made their headline "Iraq: Soldiers Describe Mistreatment by Commanders; Good Treatment as POWs" ?