Posted on 10/19/2011 5:19:04 AM PDT by Pan_Yan
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish soldiers, air force bombers and helicopter gunships launched an incursion into Iraq on Wednesday, hours after Kurdish rebels killed 24 soldiers and wounded 18 others in multiple attacks along the border.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had launched large-scale operations, including "a hot pursuit within the limits of international law."
He did not elaborate, but added, "We will never bow to any attack from inside or outside Turkey."
Erdogan canceled a visit to Kazakhstan after the attacks as the chief of the military as well as interior and defense ministers rushed to the border area to oversee the anti-rebel offensives.
NTV television, without citing sources, said Turkish troops had gone some 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) into Iraq and helicopters were ferrying commandos across the border.
The incursion for now appears to be limited in scope. Turkey last staged a major ground offensive against Iraq in early 2008.
The new incursion began hours after the rebels, who are fighting for autonomy in Turkey's southeast, staged simultaneous attacks on military outposts and police stations near the border towns of Cukurca and Yuksekova early Wednesday.
The Interior Ministry earlier had said 26 soldiers were killed and 22 others were wounded but the prime minister corrected the casualty figures to 24 dead and 18 wounded without providing an explanation for the discrepancy. It was the deadliest Kurdish rebel attack since 1992, according to a tally by NTV television.
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“Turkish troops had gone some 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) into Iraq and helicopters were ferrying commandos across the border.”
N O T good.
This is another 3:00 a.m. phone call that “O” will mishandle
as US troops leave....
I have mixed feeling about that. Iraq is moving towards a more radical Islamic government, as shown by how badly the Christians there are being treated. The problem between the Kurds and Turks is not going to get better anytime soon and Iraq is wholly incapable of controlling their borders, especially in the semi autonomous Kurdish North. They took a looong time to form a government after the last round of elections and I wonder how much longer the pretense of democracy will hold.
I would love for Iraq to succeed, they could be a great stabilizing influence in the region. However, I'm not very comfortable with our troops being trapped in some "mutual protection pact" or "combat advisory role" when things go from bad to worse. I get the "you broke it, you own it" philosophy but that needs to have an end date. And I think 4,000 lives and a few $100 billion should be about it.
Turkish incursions into Iraq go back many years. Nothing new here.
Who’s even looking to O anymore? America is now out of the loop. It’s all happening next door to Israel, and as an Israeli I hope we provide as much support to the Kurds as we can without getting directly embroiled. Doesn’t matter what sort of Islam the Kurds practice. If Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran are kept busy within their own borders, that’s a good thing for us. If they’re shown to be the hypocrites they are, crushing a Kurdish nationalistic movement as brutally as they can, they can’t continue to spew that racist blather about two states for two peoples. Well, they can, but...you know what I mean.
And why not?? Who is going to stop them??
The only reason Turkey has not done this before now is because of the US presence. After New Years, all bets are off and we may actually get to witness an old fashioned reenactment of a war between the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Empire with the sand Arabs caught in between.
Except that Turkey is now fully transiioned to a radical Islamic state...
The US didn’t break Iraq. They gave it the best chance it could possibly have to join the modern world. At some point, though, you gotta let the kid go forward on the bike without holding the handlebars and walking alongside. If they stay on and start peddling shakily, I’ll be glad for them. If they fall, well...
“Actually, I’m glad that Obama is pulling them out now, asap..”
We are giving up a strategically important position in the ME. Iran is going to control Iraq by proxy while the north breaks out into civil war. Our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan is not just about “freeing” Iraq and Afghanistan or stopping AQ. It’s about containing Iran, I don’t care how politicians sold the operation to anyone.
By pulling out at a point where we are perceived as weak and Iran is aggressive, we are encouraging a hot war between us and Iran (with the support of Cuba and Venezuela) that could be avoided. Obama will not be president forever, and Ron Paul isn’t going to win. The first US president who is a hawk (or who gets caught doing something naughty) is going to respond to Iran’s challenges.
Our pullout almost guarantees a much larger, more painful and more expensive war in the future.
What a comforting thought that must be for Israel.
The entire middle east right now looks like a man with a stick of dynamite in one hand and a lit match in the other on a windy day.It has a look of inevetability about it.
The only reason to put boots on the ground is to occupy the country, and try nation building. That doesn't work over there..they wll have to do it for themselves, and we don't have the will, or the desire to do what needs to be done..program similar to how we deNazified Germany, and demilitarized Japan, after WW II..
So, we'll help pick up the pieces after..
When Turkey refused to let the 3ID pass into Iraq, we should have kicked them out of NATO...
It's sobering to ponder that's for sure.Is it inevetable?
That was the big gamble. I think it was a good bet. Whether it pays off or not, it was the best bet to make under the circumstances. Nobody can build a nation. The people themselves either succeed in becoming a nation, or not. The other two alternatives to what Dubya did in Iraq would be to either take up the White Man’s Burden from imperial England, i.e., perpetual nursemaiding to and policing of the backward populations of the world, or letting everything just continue to go nuts and comforting ourselves that at least we’ve eschewed imperialism, proving our moral sensibility at any rate to ourselves as the mushroom clouds annihilate all life.
There is, IMHO, a reasonable scenario for a major conflict in the near future. Egypt will soon be run by the Muslim Brotherhood, and from what we learned at the riots by the Copt church, many units of the army are far more radicalized. Assad is under pressure in Syria, so what better way to try and save his regime than by uniting the country against the Jews? Iran would march on Israel....through Iraq? in a flash, and Turkey could move militarily in the north.
As Obama looks less and less likely to be re-elected, the Muslims may feel that their window in closing, as he is perceived as far less likely to come to Israel's aid in a conflict...the decision to support Israel will have to be made almost immediately...Obama could easily supprot the Muslims by taking his time to decide upon a response.
So the big question is would Israel, finding herself fighting on four fronts, with thousands of her citizens already dead, drop a nuke on an Arab city to make a point?
They’d probably drop two - Mecca and Medina.
CA....
Thanks Pan_Yan.
The Turks are worried about Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, as well as Iraqi-occupied Kurdistan, Iranian-occupied Kurdistan, and Syrian-occupied Kurdistan. Kurds are well represented on the Syrian National Council (the rebel congress), as are the Assyrians, and neither have any love for the Turks. Syria also had a chunk of “it’s” territory taken over by Turkey in the1930s, and that’s been one of many scabby wounds.
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