Turkey Close to Invading Northern Iraq

The Turkish military is close to sending troops into Northern Iraq to flush out Kurdish rebels who have established bases there. There has already been some fighting along the border, and the Turkish government has signaled that it will seek parliamentary approval for wider action in the area.

Broad Turkish action in Northern Iraq would open a new front in an already unimaginably complicated Middle Eastern war, and would expand on a long standing fight between the military and the PKK, a group of Kurdish rebels. The PKK (Kurdish Worker's Party) has been fighting since 1978 for an independent Kurdish state comprising south-eastern Turkey, north-eastern Iraq, north-eastern Syria and north-western Iran.

Prior to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Kurds in Iraq were brutally oppressed by the Ba'ath regime; the people there were even the victims of a grisly chemical weapons experiment in the 1980s. Since the invasion, the Kurd-controlled portion of Northern Iraq has been pointed to as an unparalleled success for the US military. The region is relatively free of violence and the economy is strong. Unfortunately, much of the wealth that is being generated there is being funneled towards the PKK and the establishment of a Kurdish state.

Meanwhile, the Turkish government has been allowing the US to use Turkish airspace to fly troops, equipment, and supplies into the area. Turkish action in the area will likely threaten the security of these supply routes.

Ok, let me recap this for you: the US military manages to carve out one peaceful portion of an otherwise hellishly chaotic region, that peaceful area then creates a haven for a terrorist organization bent on destroying a traditional ally, traditional ally threatens military action against terrorist organization, threatened military action would jeopardize the US mission that created peaceful portion of an otherwise hellishly chaotic region in the first place.

God Damn it! Even when we get something right, we get it wrong.

Update: On top of everything, the brain-trust over in the US Congress is planning on passing a resolution that recognizes that the Ottoman Turks (the theocratic predecessors to the modern secular Turkish government) committed a genocide against the people of Armenia 90 years ago. The current Turkish government is not happy about this, and has threatened repercussions if the resolution passes.

Don't get me wrong, genocide is a horrible thing, but why do we need this resolution now? The people that committed the atrocity are long dead, the government that ordered it is no longer in power, and our relations with Turkey are as tense as they have been since the fall of the Soviet Union.

I really want to break out my tin foil hat and start screaming about a Pelosi-created conspiracy to get us out of Iraq by systematically pissing off all of our allies in the region, but I really don't think Congress is competent enough to pull something like that off.