[BlackJack]

Kirkuk sits on $10 Billion barrels, maybe more.

[dead]

Mars needs women.

[ChemistCat]

This is NOT A BAD IDEA. I hope W has the imagination to see it for its possibilities.

The Turks have in the past had charge of an empire better managed and more humanely governed than any of its contemporaries--yeah, the Ottoman Turks were pretty tough in battle, but even Jews in their domain lived well and with relatively great freedom. If they can rein in their radical elements, they can rule the people of Northern Iraq much better than Saddam Hussein has, and to everyone's benefit.

PUSH this idea with your representatives, please. Call your senators and tell them not to be afraid to give the Turks the go-ahead on this. Ask them to pass word on to the President of your support. This would let the Turkish people come around and support us wholeheartedly, too. It would demonstrate to the whole world in a concrete way that we're not afraid to work WITH Muslim nations that will turn away from Osama and back toward democratic, free-market, secular rule.

That is NO SMALL FEAT.

[WOSG]

huh??? Superpower USA is not allowed to do anything without a UN resolution, but Turkey just ups and asks for a bite or Iraq and they can get it ?!?!?!?

[SamAdams76]

I was just thinking...I just got this $500 globe from my work as a gift. It's a terrific globe that is sitting in my library right now. First class all the way.

But if Turkey takes a chunk of Iraq, my globe is going to be obsolete! What a bummer.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

Any fool can tell what the Turks are after. Take out a map and look where the oil fields in Iraq are. Next to Turkey and next to Iran.

When we go in, I bet the Turks were planning to go also (in the north) and the Iranians as soon as they can mobilize and move in the south.

We catch Sadam in Bagdad, they control the oil fields (and the revenue which flows from them) and we have responsibilies for feeding the refugees.

There are a bunch of greedy ba$tard$ in that region.

[calmseas]

The Turks know the score. Geopolitically it's all about money and territory. They are trying to blackmail us for money, now they are uping the ante.

[Edmund Burke]

The US should let the Turks rule the entire country. It would save us a whole lot of trouble. The Turks used to rule it anyway. Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Israel, Palestine, Lebannon, Syria, etc., all operated a lot better when the Turks ruled with an iron hand. They know how to keep these people in line. Dismantling the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI has turned out to be a big mistake. I would think that most of the Iraqis would rather be ruled by Muslim Turkey than by the Christian US anyway. The idea that Iraq is going to become a democracy anytime soon is a pipedream.

[AntiGuv]

Yep, as I've said previously, Turkey's paramount objective is a free hand in the Kurdish regions of Iraq. By insisting on an independent command or eliminating an American presence altogether, the Turkish military is in position to sieze the region well before American forces can even make it up from Kuwait to Baghdad. At the very least, this will make Turkey a key power broker in the aftermath of the upcoming campaign. Moreover, the United States would not be in position to blackball Turkey from economic relations with the restructured Iraq considering Turkey would have de facto control of the north - including the oil fields and pipelines around Kirkuk.

The United States cannot open a meaningful second front from the northern Iraq region without land-based access, because heavy offensive equipment cannot get transported by air. Even if the U.S. airlifts some light forces to capture a few strategic points, Turkey would have military superiority in that area for some while - long enough to consolidate their position. As for the economic package, Turkey would reap far more lucrative rewards by seizing control of the Kirkuk fields and the Iraqi pipeline network.

Turkey wanted to force America to abandon its plans, that was the entire point of Turkish intransigance. If we had acceded to their "final" offer, the "final" offer would've probably been jacked up once more. Indeed, their demands for military operational freedom already represent an additional requirement toward their acquiescence to American requests. The Turks don't want just $32 billion out of this, in essence; the Turks want Irbil, Mosul, and Kirkuk...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

They want land, not money I guess!

Forming up a ping list here for War_List.

Anyone want on or off send me a Freep mail.
I can see the volume getting high.
I want on anyones bump list for articles going on the War_List

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[cavtrooper21]

Me thinks the KURDS will have a few choice words on that matter.
First one being: H#!L
Second: No

[Centurion2000]

Well now that Turkey just crapped all over our plan to use them as a staging ground ... F%^& them.

[Thud]

ping

[Porterville]

So I'm lost, where are we with Turkey??? I for one think we should tell them to blank off and give the kurds a homeland.

[knak]

I saw something earlier that said the Turkish military called for return of emergency rule.

[rmlew]

Kirkuk is also a majority Turcoman city. Turcomen (or Turkomen or Turkmen) are ethnic Turks who have lived in northern Iraq for a millenium. They speak Arabic but are discriminated against by Arabs and Kurds.
Turkey wants to protect Turkomen and claim Kirkuk on that basis.

[Voronin]

Just another re-alignment in the 'world (dis)order' since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Lots more to come. Move on now, there's nothing to see...

VRN

[unixfox]

Tuck Furkey !!

[Consort]

If the Turks take Northern Iraq, the threat of ethnic cleansing of the Kurds is a very real possibility.

[ApesForEvolution]

Kurds and oil. I'm not impressed with the direction the new islamonuts in power are taking Turkey...

[sandydipper]

Bad Idea! We need to free the Kurds not give their home land to the Turks.

IMHO the Kurds are much more aligned with demorcracy than the Turks. Give Northern Iraq to the Kurds - Southern Iraq to the Sunnis and make middle Iraq the next US state.