LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman. Winner 2013 Webby Awards for Best Political Website
May 23, 2013

 Choose a size
Text Size

Trending:     chris hedges     economy     elizabeth warren     politics     robert scheer
Most Read

A Call to Action

Bizarre, Apparently Jihadist Slaying in London (Video)

Hell on Earth for Greeks

Oklahoma Needs Help, Not Ideology

Another Memorial Day in This Endless War

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture
 * NEW! * A Call to Action
Act of Congress
Daily Rituals

Digs

Truthdig Bazaar
Jazz

Jazz

By Gary Giddins and Scott DeVeaux
$26.37

more items

 
Ear to the Ground

Another Iraq War

Email this item Email    Print this item Print    Share this item... Share

Posted on Apr 13, 2007
Turkish planes
militaryphotos.net

The Bush administration finds itself in a difficult position as tensions between two regional allies threaten to escalate to war. The Turkish military is fed up with Kurdish rebels it says have safe harbor in northern Iraq, and now wants to mount an assault across the border. One of Iraq’s Kurdish leaders has said such an attack would trigger retaliation.

Turkey has long complained about thousands of Kurdish rebels it says mount operation from within Iraq but has yet to act decisively, mainly because of Washington’s intervention. But diplomats warn that election-year pandering could pressure Turkey to attack.


Los Angeles Times:

The Turkish military’s powerful chief declared Thursday that his army should be given the go-ahead for a cross-border offensive into northern Iraq to pursue Kurdish rebels using the territory as a staging ground for attacks.

The United States has strongly warned Turkey against such an incursion, saying it could destabilize the entire region. Any strike across the border could leave the American military in a difficult position if this fellow member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ended up battling Iraqi Kurds, who are key U.S. allies.

But several Western diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they feared that in this election year, the Turkish government would succumb to popular sentiment and authorize some kind of military push.

Read more

More Below the Ad

Advertisement


New and Improved Comments

If you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy.

By HrantDink, April 28, 2007 at 2:09 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

The turks are a weak people. They dont have huge members and massive testicles like my people, the armenians. thank you.

Report this

By moni, April 14, 2007 at 3:20 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

http://WWW.kurdistanobserver.com

For futher information on the relationship of the Kurds with Turkey

Report this

By moni, April 14, 2007 at 2:58 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

You didn’t print my comment yesterday?  Why not?
Furthermore I forgot to mention the fact that Turkey i.e. the Turkish Government innundated three Kurdish villages in the Kurdish region of Turkey by demolishing damns.  Several thousand “Turkish” Kurds were flooded and their villages were wiped out.

Report this

By Eric L. Prentis, April 14, 2007 at 10:50 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

The incompetence of President Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq is now coming to an untenable conclusion with Turkey threatening to invade Iraq. The news out of Iraq just gets worse, the surge will not work during an Iraqi civil war, time for the US to get out of Iraq now.

Report this

By James Yell, April 14, 2007 at 8:16 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I wouldn’t get too enthusiastic about Turkish push to invade Kurdistan. It is wrong for the Kurds to launch or allow premeditated attacks across border, but they are right Kurds have been oppressed by Turks, Iraq and Iran. As the Kurds are the only group maintaining a functioning government, a Turkish invasion could only lead to more chaos. This is all left-overs from the Turkish Empire, aka Ottoman Empire.

False pride and greed for others wealth is the motivation, which sounds familiar as it is the only consistent motive for Bush/Cheney’s attack on Iraq, a country that did not have ANY THING TO Do with 9/11, nor did they present a real danger to the US.

Report this

By Harold Strauss, April 14, 2007 at 7:12 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Since the Bushes ran/run the White House, the munitions manufacturers have been kept very busy. When/why won’t the U.S. keep their noses out of the affairs of other countries. One thought come to mind,“the “Jews”!

Report this

By Kol Klink, April 14, 2007 at 6:20 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I agree with David. The Kurds are feeling their oats and have let their big mouths overload their backsides.
The Turks have one tough, well trained and disciplined army. Just check with the Armenians to verify this, if you can find any.
The Turks want to deny the oil rich city of Kirkuk to the Kurds to prevent them from becoming wealthy and stirring up more trouble among the 15 million Kurds living in Southern Turkey. The Kurds want to create the nation of ‘Kurdistan’ carved from Northern Iraq, Southern Turkey, and Kurdish occupied portions of Iran and Syria. This vision of ‘Kurdistan’ would be a land locked state, dependent on their neighbors for access to ports, pipelines, etc. Obviously none of these nations are interested in donating land to form a ‘Kurdistan’ state. Iran has already been exchanging cross border fire with the Kurds, as has Turkey.
Seymore Hersch has reported that the US and Israel are supporting Kurds that are conducting cross border raids into Iran. The Iranians have already told the Turks that they will support a Turkish invasion of Norther Iraq to ‘clean out’ the infiltrating Kurds and stop the cross border raids.
What will shrub and condi do? An invasion and occupation of Northern Iraq by the Turks might end any hope of a unified Iraq. Does shrub know where Turkey is? Condi does not get on well with the Turks and on one of her visits to Turkey she outlined a list of US demands to the Turks. The Turks didnt care for Condi’s demands so she threw a hissy fit, stamped her feet, and said ‘this conversation is going nowhere.’ Then Condi got up and walked out of the meeting and flew off to conduct high level diplomacy somewhere else. Some diplomat. Stay tuned for the next episode of ‘shrub vs the world.’

Report this

By moni, April 13, 2007 at 9:20 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Yes, a moment of truth for the Bush administration that has purportedly been championing DEMOCRACY.  The KURDS were promised autonomy by the Treaty of Sevres in 1917.  They desire an autonomous STATE.  They are the indigenous peoples of KURDISTAN and it so happens that their region was divided among five countries; Iraq, Syria, Iran, Turkey and the former
Soviet Union.

It is no accident that they are the largest linguistic and cultural population of people “without a country”. The fact that the oil wells are in their region is of the utmost significance.  It has been in the interest of the Controlling Powers to keep these people dispersed and in separate regions of the above-mentioned countries.  Dividing a people, is the subtlest way to maintain control over them.

Report this

By TDoff, April 13, 2007 at 9:16 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Wow, the Turks versus the Iraqi Kurds, that’s gonna be a bitch!

The only fair way to handle that is for the USA WMD manufacturers to draw straws to see who supplies the Turks and who supplies the Iraqi Kurds. If you’re just a ‘little guy’, you too can make enormous profits on this deal. Just go to Vegas and bet on the line that puts the odds in favor of two of Halliburton’s divisions getting all the contracts on a ‘no-bid’ basis, one to supply the Kurds and one the Turks.

That’ll be the realization of the VP’s fondest dream (the wet one), Halliburton vs. KBR, fighting itself to see who can get the biggest, wildest contracts and access to $Billions (dare he hope for $Trillions?) of shrink-wrapped bundles of USA currency.

If you can find a bet on Dick-Head Cheney’s 409 fund exceeding $50 Billion, take it.

You, too, can become a war profiteer and buy a country (or at least a significant part of one), say Patagonia, soon to become a tropical resort, with mountains high enough to remain above sea level, no matter what.

Report this

By David, April 13, 2007 at 6:43 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Finally, a moment of truth for the Bush administration and its war on terror.  They justified the invasion of Iraq as an act of self defense and now here we are; an ally of ours is experiencing terrorists attacks from territory we are occupying.  The question comes down to how much hypocrisy can we stomach before we loose all credibility. 

I firmly believe Turkey is in its full right to attack an enemy that is attacking and killing its civilians and soldiers. 

This coming war between Turkey and the Kurds will devastate NATO and bring about the ultimate dissolution of Iraq.  I also beleive that this conflict is inevitable and that Turkish nationalism and Kurdish nationalism is on a collision course and there is little to nothing the US can do about this. 

Thanks

Report this
PatrickHenry's avatar

By PatrickHenry, April 13, 2007 at 6:10 pm Link to this comment

If they want some payback who are we to deny them?

They can have the whole damn country.

Report this
Newsletter

sign up to get updates


 
 
 
 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
© 2013 Truthdig, LLC. All rights reserved.