[Torie]

The US has no plans to create a Kurdistan. That is ludicrous. I am not sure just why we "need" Turkey to held rebuild Iraq, assuming it doesn't get so sulky as to close its borders to trade and transit in a post Saddam era. If Turkey did so, that would really be self defeating.

[Beck_isright]

Actually we do need them because there are no other allies that can contribute 50,000 plus troops to patrol the Iranian and Syrian border regions, unless we want to keep 200,000 plus of our own boys there for a long, lont time. Something doesn't add up with this and I'm beginning to think there are some serious deceptions for the benefit of Iraq's leadership and public consumption. That's too much money for Turkey to leave on the table and too much influence in the Middle East to surrender.