IRAQ: Turkish jets strike Kurdish bases as PKK moots truce

[maxrandb]

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Security&loid=8.0.333625286&par=0

Erbil, 24 August (AKI) - Turkish airforce jets on Thursday struck in northern Iraq, bombing bases believed to be operated by the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Cihan news agency reports. The PKK which is banned in Turkey had earlier appealed to the population in the villages in Iraqi Kurdistan, near the Turkish border, to leave the area, predicting military attacks by Turkey and Iran. The separatist group also said it had proposed some sort of truce to Ankara.

Turkish military officials stated that the F-16 jets which took off during the night had inflicted serious casualties on the PKK, the agency reported, adding that ground operations are continuing along the Iraqi border.


So Turkey is bombing Iraq with planes provided by the United States. Gee, thanks George! You're policy in Iraq is really working well.

[htuttle]

1. The Kurds are the only group in Iraq that still tolerates the US

But I suspect that if we approach this situation like the invasion of Lebanon (ie., we aren't going to urge Turkey to stop bombing), that will no longer be the case.

[azurnoir]

6. I suspect the Kurds were only

of "value" and trusted by this administration as long as Saddam was in power. After the invasion they quietly became a threat, as the Kurds want an independent state of their own. Kurdistan, due to its geography it has relatively abundant water, more arable land, and oil, is more important to Iraq than Iraq is to Kurdistan.

[xchrom]

2. and so the murder and mayhem spreads.

shake hands with bush and come down with the ''unitary'' virus.

[Botany]

3. and so it goes ...

.... and Iran is shelling Kurdish positions in Iraq too.

We have truly opened the gates of hell in the mid east & beyond.

[RufusEarl]

4. Just another work day in the oval office,

can someone please put the fires out that are engulfing the globe? I'm so tired of war, the drums have been pounding constantly for over three years with no end in sight.

[Zodiak]

5. The overwhelmingly negative effect of the Iraq war

, besides all of the death, destruction, and chaos is the notion that the United States is a paper tiger that is too bogged down to have any strong positon or any threat to the agression of others.

Now every country that has a wild hair will just go ahead and bomb their enemies and know that the US will do absolutely nothing about it.

We are officially no longer a superpower. We squandered it for Halliburton's profits. And world war will result, eventually (and not the way the RWers are envisioning it).

[IndianaGreen]

7. and some pro-Iran war DUers were saying that Iran was shelling the Kurds

the very same Kurdish terrorists that Turkey is now going after. Will they now call for war on Turkey?

:eyes:

[ConcernedCanuk]

8. So - the US invades, and then lets other countries bomb Iraq??

.
.
.

With all their stealth and "shock and awe" weapons

This is preventable

But the US is saying "OK - bomb them people up there - we need that oil under there asses anyways"

BUT

"They are looking into it" (as if)

From the posted article:

The U.S. government is looking into allegation of Kurdish reports of a joint Turkish-Iranian operation against the PKK in northern Iraq.

Speaking in Baghdad, spokesman for the U.S. and its allies in Iraq Maj. Gen. William Caldwell stated that there had been shelling in northern Iraq. "I'm not sure exactly where the shelling came from. So I'd be hesitant to say exactly who was responsible for it," the US general said.

USA is beginning to DISGUST me -

I'm long past the fear . .

As are many others.