Hot Turkey

Buried in today's New York Times is this disturbing item:

The commander of American forces in the Middle East told the Turkish government on Tuesday that he could not spare any troops to meet its request for an assault on Kurdish guerrillas who have been using northern Iraq as a base for attacks on Turkish forces.

Gen. John P. Abizaid, head of the Army's Central Command, said during a visit in Ankara that the United States considered the main Kurdish separatist group, the P.K.K., a terrorist organization. But, he added, "we also understand - all of us understand - that our troops have a lot of work to do there along with the Iraqi security forces, and we agree that, over time, we must deal with the P.K.K."

(full article here)

Let's review:

1. Many predominantly Sunni areas of Iraq are not secure enough to hold elections.
2. Non-insurgent Sunnis are now directing more of their ire to the U.S. forces than to the insurgents, citing widespread destruction (thousands are homeless) with no apparent increase in security.
3. The Shiites don't want the U.S. forces there either, but they are willing to tolerate them for now. They couldn't care less what their former Sunni oppressors think.
4. The Kurds assume they will be permitted to continue as a more or less autonomous region.
5. Kurdish separatists are pissing off Turkey.

What is it that the invasion of Iraq in terms of regional stability, national security and world opinion again?

Comments

[gypsy frocks]

And that's not even counting the Kurds in Syria and Iran. There are two ways of looking at this (probably more, but let's stick to two for now): Either the Bushies just really doesn't want to deal with the Kurd issue right now, because the Kurdish area of Iraq is the most stable part of the country and they just want to keep it that way while they try to stabilize the rest of the country; OR they are privately encouraging the Kurds and gearing up for a longer-term territorial skirmish that will lead to a U.S.-friendly Kurdistan (which might be a better bet than ending up with a U.S.-friendly Iraq). Either way, the Kurd issue isn't gonna go away -- whether it's part of anyone's long-term strategy or not.

[gypsy frocks]

(and also, I'm not offering any opinions on the moral, historical or legal claims of the Kurds -- I know they've been abused, oppressed and (at least in Iraq and Turkey) massacred, and any long-term solution in the region is going to have to account for their interests -- the question is just how much and how carefully anybody is really thinking about this right now)