Turkey and Iraq

Turkey is shelling PKK positions in Iraq, and what's more, it appears to be massing an invasion force for an incursion into northern Iraq. This is not encouraging for anyone, and yet it's par for the course in that part of the world.

Despite the obvious and frightening scenarios that may be unleashed by a major Turkish incursion, there may be little in the way of pretext to stop it.

Oh the Irony! Turkey/Kurdistan Edition

Remember how the US invaded Iraq ostensibly to limit terrorist threats - something trumpeted as the Bush Doctrine? Remember how Bush said he would not make a distinction between terrorists and those that harbor them?

Well now the Turkish government is accusing US-occupied Iraq of harboring terrorists! By the Bush Administration's own foreign policy doctrine, Turkey is able - nay ought - to invade and occupy Kurdistan to deal with the PKK.

Of course the reality is much more complex than that. The Turkish government hasn't exactly treated its Kurdish minority with the utmost of fairness and the US does regard the PKK as a terror organization. On the other hand the reality in 2003 was more complex too.