Not that the Iraq invasion and occupation has been a particularly good omen, along with the myriad other bad things the Bush administration has done, but I consider it to be an even worse sign when the one area of reasonable success - Kurdish-controlled Northern Iraq - begins its own death spiral. There have been rumbling in the news for the past month or so that Turkey was getting impatient with the Kurds, who have this crazy notion of autonomy and restoring their ancestral lands (a familiar theme for the Middle East in general, no?), and they kept threatening interdiction. The United States warned them against doing so, but it's not like we have any legs to stand on when it comes to unilateral action these days (thanks for that W).
So, now it's happened. As reported on VOA and CNN, Turkey has bombed Kurds well within Iraqi borders. Which then begs the questions:
- Why didn't the US respond to an aerial incursion?
- How will the US react publicly to this unilateral action?
- Given that the Kurds have been waging a quiet guerrilla war in Southern Turkey, what's the reasonable course of action and response?
I can just see the headlines now: "US downs Turkish fighter jets, NATO shrugs." Kind of an odd situation. What do you think?
