Not long ago, I had an interesting conversation.

I won't say who I work for or what I do, but suffice it to say I talk to an awful lot of random people on the phone. Whenever I hear an interesting name I ask about a person's nationality.

Why? It's a good icebreaker. It works very well for people who don't have one of the more common American surnames (Italian, Irish, German, etc.). For example, names ending in "uk" are almost invariably Ukranian, and you'd be surprised at how delighted people often are when you guess that one correctly. Similarly, most Armenian names end in "ian," and I'm sure that to most Armenians, it must seem like about five people in America know what an Armenian is. Most Koreans have one of only a handful of surnames, so they're usually easy to peg. And so on.

Anyway, one day, not long ago, I get a random call from a guy whose accent sounds vaguely Arabic. But the name's funny. It's exotic without sounding familiar. I ask where he's from. He said Iraq. I said, "hmm.... Chaldean?" He was surprised, and said that was a pretty good guess. I said, "Yeah, Chaldean, you're a christian Arab." He said no, not Arab.

I thought for a sec: oh. Christian from Iraq, not an Arab. "You're a Kurd, then?" He was impressed. He's been living in Dearborn, MI, for the last 25 years. He's recently been back to Northern Iraq. Although his American children seem uninterested in their ancestral homeland, he's gone back a few times.

Without even thinking, the next thing out of my mouth was, "God I hope they get that son of a bitch soon."

We both knew what I meant. He told me he agreed, that he hoped America would go in there "tomorrow."

He also told me something that made me feel good. He told me that when he was back there recently, he was terribly pleased to see that the people in northern Iraq are almost all very positive about this country. He said that they love America and are ready to help us in any way they can. He clearly loved his Kurdish brethren--and loved America. I kinda got quiet and couldn't talk for a sec. He seemed moved too.

I remembered all this when I read this ABC News story about women's suffering in Iraq. They noted that, while men routinely suffered the worst of Saddam Hussein's sadism, women suffer peculiar punishments of their own. You should read it. You should get others to read it, too.

Speaking of which, Andrea Harris also shot off the best line of the week, when she referenced this article and then wondered aloud if feminists were listening. She said, "...[t]hen I remembered that feminists are currently worried about whether or not women golfers will be allowed to join some tournament somewhere."

Also, John Weidner has a story on this very subject that you won't read anywhere else: the Kurds speak. (Weidner's blog is one of the best-kept secrets of the blogosphere. More people need to read him.)

I'm thinking of writing more about people who think we're mostly going after Iraq "because of the oil." Maybe another night.