What great news. Turkey is now fighting the terrorists in Iraq! Well it would be great news except that unfortunately the terrorists Turkey is fighting in Iraq are not the ones (i.e., Al Qaeda in Iraq) which President Bush and General Petraeus told Congress are the main cause of the violence “over there.” Instead, as many predicted, Turkey’s military has now launched cross border attacks against PKK stongholds in Northern Iraq in response to recent violent attacks by PKK fighters based in Northern Iraq which killed and/or wounded a number of Turkish soldiers and civilians.
The PKK is the Kurdish militant group which is officially labeled a terrorist organization by our State department, and which has carried out attacks against both military and civilian targets inside Turkey for decades seeking autonomy for the Kurds who reside there. I guess those threats diplomatic overtures by Condoleezza Rice were all for naught, unfortunately. Here’s the details of the raid as reported by Boomberg:
Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) — Turkey bombed units of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq and sent troops over the border in pursuit of the militants, a lawmaker of Turkey’s governing party said today.
Turkish F-16 jets and artillery pounded at least 63 suspected rebel positions inside the Kurdish-controlled region from Oct. 21 until yesterday, said the lawmaker, who attended a briefing by government spokesman Cemil Cicek to a group of government deputies late yesterday in Ankara.
The army sent 300 commandos into Iraq by helicopter on Oct. 21 to hunt down PKK militants after 12 soldiers were killed by the group the same day, the official said. The attack on PKK bases up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) into Iraq lasted about 28 hours before troops returned to the Turkish side, he added.
This is bad news on many levels. Clearly, respect for the US in the region is dramatically weakened over the past 6 years if Turkey, one of our most important allies, can so blithely disregard a “request” by our Secretary of State for it to hold off on its planned military response against the PKK inside Iraq. In addition, it will put further pressure on the fragile coalition between the Shi’ite and Kurdish political parties which constitute the principal partners in Maliki’s government in Baghdad. It also puts the United States in the uncomfortable position of having to choose between the Kurds, the one ethnic group in Iraq whose political leadership has consistently supported the US occupation and Turkey, a long term US ally and the site of major US military bases in the region.
Nonetheless, I’m sure Cheney and his friends on the Vice President’s Energy Task Force are thrilled about this latest development. The price of oil, after all, is now over $85 a barrel, and though it had been slipping of late on reports that the Saudis planned to increase production, it’s likely to rise again after this news. Just in time for winter.
Who says uncontrolled chaos in the Middle East is all bad? Somehow, I wonder of this was the plan all along. A forever war does need the occasional “unintended consequence” to keep it rolling along, and keep defense industry profits soaring, and what better way than to add a new combatant to the fray.
But no, it would be too cynical of me to harbor such thoughts. Wouldn’t it?
