[Cleburne]

One cannot blame the Turks for wishing to deal with the Kurds. A Kurdish autonomous region of any sort would mean much trouble for Turkey in the form of increased violence and terrorism.

The Turks may not be the finest folks in the world, but they have every reason to be actively looking out for their interests.

[blam]

"One cannot blame the Turks for wishing to deal with the Kurds. A Kurdish autonomous region of any sort would mean much trouble for Turkey in the form of increased violence and terrorism."

Not during our war!

[cgbg]

they have every reason to look out for their interests

I agree. But, the question the Turks should be thinking long and hard about is whether such a move is really in their long term interest.

In the end they are going to have to beg us to prevent the creation of a new nation called Kurdistan.

So they would be wise to kiss and make up with us. Because, whether anyone likes it or not (and apparently nobody does) we are the only nation with the power to draw boundaries in the Middle East that will stick.

The Turkish public really really wishes that this was not the case, but wishing will not make it so.

[Gumption]

But it seems to me that confronting the Kurds would more assuredly rile Kurdish nationalistic tendencies just when the U.S.A. seemed to have convinced them to shift their long-term goals to attempting to exist in a democratic Iraq.

Turkey doing anything forceful in Iraq will only hurt their own self interests ... IMO.

[Pukka Puck]

"The Turks may not be the finest folks in the world, but they have every reason to be actively looking out for their interests."

They stabbed us in the back, so the hell with them.

[clockwork]

The Turks may not be the finest folks in the world, but they have every reason to be actively looking out for their interests

The Turks are Muslims, therefore they have no right to look out for their interests. In fact, we should keep on marching north and destroy Turkey and give them a dose of nation building.