Posted on 10/17/2007 9:58:57 AM PDT by jdm
The Turkish Parliament authorized their government to invade northern Iraq any time during the next year in order to quell the terrorist attacks in the Kurdish regions of southern Turkey. The overwhelming vote to authorize the invasion demonstrates the declining influence of the US with its NATO partner and Middle East ally, a situation exacerbated by the Congressional effort to censure Turkey over a genocide from a century ago:
The Turkish parliament Wednesday authorized cross-border military operations into northern Iraq to combat Kurdish separatist rebels as world leaders implored Turkey to delay any action.
In the hours before the parliament voted by a gaping margin of 507 to 19 to give Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan permission to launch strikes any time over the next year, Iraqi and NATO officials made a flurry of cautionary, last-minute telephone calls to the country's top leaders.
The vote came just moments after President Bush in a White House press conference urged Turkey to continue talking to Iraq officials about the situation and to not move troops against the rebels.
"We are making it very clear to Turkey that we don't think it is in their interests to send troops into Iraq," Bush told reporters. " . . . There's a better way to deal with the issue than having the Turks send massive troops into the country."
It's almost impossible to overestimate the damage this could cause to the stability we've managed to get thus far in Iraq. The Kurdish territory has been our biggest success story to this point. Their economy has boomed, and the violence in western Iraq has mostly been non-existent in the north. They see America as the savior of the Kurds against both Saddam and the post-invasion chaos.
If the Turks invade the territory, we will have three choices, all of them bad. We could defend the Kurds, which means war with the only Middle Eastern Muslim democracy and a distraction from stabilizing Iraq and containing Iran. We could sit on our hands and alienate the Iraqi Kurds, who won't be able to defend themselves, while the entire north dissolves into guerilla warfare. We could stand between the two groups and try to defend a DMZ, and get our collective asses shot off. That's all of the possibilities, and none of them sound too appetizing.
Iraq's central government offered an intermediate step that might work. Nouri al-Maliki offered to conduct joint operations with the Turks to clear the PKK out of the border region. He'd better do something quick, because a Turkish invasion would likely be followed by Syrian and Iranian incursions into Iraq as well, although the US might take either as enough provocation to conduct military attacks on both capitals. The Iranians have already begun shelling PKK sites along the border. Joint operations would take some resources away from Coalition operations, but this would be a higher priority at the moment.
It goes without saying that we would have had more influence on the situation in Turkey had Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in Congress made themselves the arbiter of the Armenian genocide of 1915. If the troops cross the border, we can thank Pelosi and her colleagues for reducing our ability to avoid a shooting war that could cost thousands of lives here and now.
“Clinton begged Hasert not to bring it up for a vote because it would undermine foreign policy with Turkey.
Hasert complied with his request and never brought it up for a vote.”
Hastert did the right thing!
Pelosi makes Clinton look good!
That is an interesting question. Kurds have a lot of dirty laundry as well. Turks “used” their Kurdish fellow Muslims to do lots of dirty work for them in the past especially in eastern Turkey: mainly rounding up and butchering Christians in Turkey. But ever since the secular Kurds got a foothold they are no longer considered bona fide Muslims...
Plus there are lots more Chrstian Kurds than there are turk Christians although that is slowly changing too.
interesting=interested
Blaming Pelosi’s trick for this is a bit disengenuous. Turkey has been champing at the bit to go after the PPK for ages. If PPK geurillas have been attacking across the border, the Turks have legitimate reasons to do so.
This “event” could also involve Iran, since they also have a Kurdish minority within their borders. This whole scenario is shaping up just like the events prior to WWI in the Balkans...............
Theoretical Kurdistan............
bttt
Make no mistake, this was intentional. If the Rats cannot help the insurgents they may as well limit our ally's support.
While Pelosi’s stunt poured gasoline on an already inflamed issue, the article correctly pointed out that even without her referendum the U.S. has little or no influence over what our Nato partners do. Turkey will strike the Kurds regardless of what we say.
G*d bless and protect you son. I hope he returns safe and sound.
Sadly this is reminding me more and more of my war, Vietnam. I am hopeful that this nation will find real leaders before the middle east blows up in our faces. The entire place to para phase the great Otto Von Bismark, is not worth one private’s life.
And even more important reassigd those borders where they should be for Armenia -—another third of the parastate of Turkey shoud be returned to Armenia.
If the RNC doesn’t immediately start running a commercial decrying her actions, overlayed with the Turkish response, then it is truly hopeless. I’d also like to hear a few of the Republican candidates call for her resignation, and an advance apology to the families of any soldiers who may be killed in such a conflict.
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