Monday, October 22, 2007

What if Turkey attacks Kurdistan, Iraq?

A messy situation will get messier. Of course, the Democrats' Armenian resolution condemning Turkish's role in committing genocide in 1915 doesn't help US-Turkey relations at all.

From the American Thinker:

What if Turkey attacks the Kurds?
Dennis Sevakis
Sharon Behn of the Washington Times reports that the Kurds demand U.S. defense from the attacks that may come their way from Turkey, already enraged by the Democrats' resolution condemning the Armenian slaughter as a genocide.

Kurdish leaders said yesterday the United States is obliged by a U.N. resolution to defend them in the event that Turkish forces invade northern Iraq in pursuit of members of a Kurdish rebel movement.


So, what should we do? Are we ready to go to war with our "important ally" Turkey? Or do we abandon the Kurds who've been more supportive of the U.S. than anyone else in the Region (with the possible exception of the Israelis).

What should the US do? That's a tough one. They already have a handful with al queda and the shia militant groups. the last thing they need is trouble in the northern part of iraq (mostly peaceful and pro-US) and run by the Kurds.

I hope the Turks show some restraint before they distabilize the whole of Iraq. Look, US and Iraqi officials know Iran and Syria are allowing Al Queda and Iranian agents respectively to cross their borders to Iraq and kill US soldiers and bomb Iraqi civilians. The US and Iraqi government knows this but they restrain themselves from using military force to go into Iran or Syria and attack those countries for fear that direct confrontation might cause more destabilization in the region.

I hope our Turkey can show similar restraint.

2 comments:

MBW said...

Turkey has not shown restraint at all and have been going on military strikes into Iraq killing scores of civilian Kurds...

The US can't restrain Turkey; Recep Erdogan, Turkey’s unreasonable and almost blood-thirsty prime minister, has apparently warned America to stay out of the dispute and scornfully threw President Bush this question, “Did they seek permission when they came a distance of 10,000km and hit Iraq?”

What can President Bush and Secretary Rice say? Nothing! How can they stop Recept Erdogan from invading Iraq after President Bush set the example himself? On what moral basis can Bush and Rice stop Erdogan from doing the same thing on the Kurds that they themselves did on Iraq and the Iraqis? None!

Bush has no moral leg to stand on to restrain Erdogan than I could fly to the moon.

john marzan said...

Here's a useful op-ed piece from Ralph Peters on Turkey' ID crisis and how the Democrats tried to play politics with the Armenian Genocide resolution.