CBS, AP and others say that Turkish troops have crossed the international border between Turkey and (technically), Iraq, to enter Kurdish territory, allegedly in "hot pursuit" of terrorists or guerrillas, (depending on taste). "Several thousand" troops are involved, say "Turkish security officials" talking to AP.
Meanwhile the Turkish Foreign Ministry denies any such thing has happened -- no Turkish troops were ever there. If they, hypothetically, might be there, it's evidently a "hot pursuit" and not an "incursion." No doubt that's a significant difference to somebody.
Back on 25 May, the Turkish Foreign Minister said Turkey had no immediate plans to send troops to Iraq. If the Turks were not and are not -- planning or doing anything, they are sure talking a lot about Kurdistan.
The Kurds have been a problem for the Turks for quite a while. What has changed ? Are the Turks positioning themselves to take care of quasi-independent Kurdistan once the Americans leave ?
2 comments:
the only friends the kurds have are the mountains.
this will mark the second time in twenty years that the americans have left the kurds hanging out to dry.
That's just in the last twenty years. Prior to that, we made no protest when the Iranian Shah made up his quarrel with Saddam over the Shatt al Arab and abandoned his allies, the Iraqi kurds, and we did not speak up for them after either world war.
To be sure, there were sound reasons of state for all of this, but that doesn't make it good or just, and so often, over the long run, reasons of state do not prove sensible.
This time, we have no particular reasons to be especially responsive to Turkish concerns, which has not been the case in the past. I hope that we do not abandon the Kurds: we have every reason not to do so, particularly given what the Democrats are shortly going to force us to do to the rest of Iraq, and all the attendant disaster and misery coming with the Lefties and their eagerness to humiliate us and make us "cut and run."
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