- Peace Garden: The tangled web we wove...

The tangled web we wove...

Monday, July 24, 2006

Will Turkey FollowIsrael's Lead? Will they follow our lesson plan - preemptive strikes? Their enemy - the Kurds.

From Turkey's perspective, they are an Iraqi problem. Kurdish rebels use Iraq as a springboard for their terrorist activities, causing Prime Minister Erdogan to line up 250,000 troops, a number nearly twice as large as the American contingent, along the Iraq border. Last weekend, 14 soldiers were killed by Kurdish guerillas. And now, eyeing the Bush doctrine at work in the Israeli bombing of Lebanon, Erdogan strains at the bit to enter the war.
Blasting Bush's double standard on the sovereign use of force to combat terrorism, Erdogan has announced troop "contingency plans" to storm over the border.
The ramifications of Turkey waging war against the PKK in Iraq amid the chaos of so many armed soldiers could certainly lead to confrontation and skirmishes between U.S. and Turkish forces, similar to what happened in Sulaymaniyah in 2003. The Turkish army is no ragtag outfit, having forcibly ousted four governments in the last 45 years.
Should we be afraid?
The Turks proved their ferocity in World War I when they repelled the Allies at Gallipoli, a battle that resulted in 250,000 dead.
And of course we can always ask the Armenians if we should be wary.



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