The Peshmerga have been sending weapons into Turkey as of late, while Iran has been forging ties with both sides of the conflict. Officially, Iran has been much more visible in Turkey signing agreements with the government. Unofficially, the Iranians have been a major supplier to the al Qaida network that exists in Turkey - a network formed during the Bosnian war and maintained to send troops and supplies to Chechnya.
This could end up being a real mess. Basically, the continuing legacy of the Clinton administration's decisions in the area are once again coming home to roost - and are putting our forces in harm's way unneccessarily.
Following Turkey's refusal to allow us to use their frontier with Iraq during the initiation of the war, I can't see us doing anything to help them. Quite to the contrary, the Peshmerga have been extremely faithful allies in the Iraq war and we should stand behind them against Turkey. Allies come and go, and it looks like since Turkey is going to join the EU, we may yet be at war with an EU member in the near future.
Interesting times, indeed.
WTF are these idiots thinking!
What should the US do, shoot them when they come across the border?
Turkey is all bluster.
Hey Turkey.... STUFF IT!
That would be a very dumb move on Turkey's part.
So we choose between Turkey and the Peshmerga?
Wow. Though as Stalin said,"You can walk with the devil until you get to the bridge."
Still, war between Turkey and Iran might open other doors of opportunity for securing American national interest.
"The United States has refused numerous Turkish appeals to eliminate the PKK strongholds."
I have no idea whether the above article is true or not. But both the US, Turkey and Israel have a vested interest in routing out the Commie-Terrorist PKK wherever they exist. I will be the first to admit, however, that to do so right now would create unnecessary agrivations that are best left alone until we secure Iraq. But if the PKK launches renewed attacks against Turkey, or the US for that matter, all bets are off.
Well, one has to wonder how much of this is actually true.
Maybe the Turks can get Hussein (assuming he hasn't already been hanged) to be their,there,they're [pick one] ally in the invasion.
I am to believe this..why?
The Turks are rattling their bluff sabres in hopes of getting some goodies from Uncle Sugar.
Turkey refused to help the US in Iraq. Now Turkey wants to attack Iraq to control the Kurds, who became our allies. Not a smart move on Turkeys part, at least in the long run. That boneheaded plan needs to be reconsidered.
The hell with Turkey. The Duelfer report showed they were neck-deep in skirting the UN sanctions on Iraq. They also refused to let our 4th ID enter Iraq from the North at the start of the war...despite earlier promises to do so. We need to make it clear to them that *any* incursion into Iraq by *any* country in the Middle East will be dealt with using the full force of the US military.
I KNEW this would happen. Everytime I've played a world scenario on Civ 3, Turkey has ALWAYS invaded Iraq.
An invasion of northern Iraq by Turkey, while unlikely, could serve U.S. and even E.U. purposes. It would give the U.S. reasonable cause to smack Iran (for supporting the invasion). And it would give the E.U. an excuse to remove Turkey from the track of E.U. membership. The E.U. has lately been waking up to the dangers of unrestricted trade and open borders with a country of 70+ million muslims.
No doubt the Turks have plans for invading all neighboring countries. However, they didn't cooperate with us in moving the 4th Infantry Division into Iraq so they can go screw themselves ~ now, if the Iranians need a small corridor so they can invade Turkey and place atomic landmines in the Eastern march areas so that Turkey is no longer a threat to Iran, that could probably be arranged, all things considered, and after Iran gets rid of the Mullahs of course!
This is BS
If the U.S. handles this right and doesn't cave to Turkey's aspirations this could unite Iraqi's while at the same time making them generally more friendly to the U.S., although this may just be restricted to the Kurds. It depends on how Shiites think about Turks invading Kurdish Iraqi territory. Perhaps they think of themselves as separate and don't consider the Kurds worthy of any kind of defense.