Breaking News: Turkish Gunships fire into Iraq
Indian NDTV is reporting Tuesday morning that Turkish Cobra helicopter gunships have fired into Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) positions inside northern Iraq. The action comes after following on an engagement in the border region on the Turkish side that began on Monday and went late into the night. AP does not mention the strikes inside Iraq, but NDTV apparently has a reporter in the area. If the Indian account is true, it is a step up in the building Turkish-Kurdish confrontation.
Turkey is also squeezing Iraqi Kurdistan economically, putting embargoes on firms connected to Kurdistan leader Massoud Barzani.
In an interview this weekend, Barzani had threatened that any Turkish incursion would "mean war."
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 10/30/2007 02:49:00 AM
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I saw this coming a long time ago. I didn't expect it to happen unless Iraq was partitioned. But, the independence of Kurdish Iraq as represented by their separate constitution and oil deal appear to have been enough to set it off. We would probably have been in the middle of it in any case, as it doesn't seem likely the Kurds can protect themselves against Turkey without help.
I think Barzani is in this up to his eyeballs. He has been very belligerent in his support of an independent Kurdistan, and I think he is taking advantage of a situation where Iraqi Kurdistan has some protection, and the complex relationship between Turkey and the US is likely to inhibit opposing forces, which it has. He wants to extend his domain.
I wonder what would happen in this country if Russia occupied Mexico, then stood by in ambivalent disarray while the Mexicans along the border went to war to recover Texas.
If the United States and/or Iraq stands for repeated Turkish incursions into Iraq under the guise of chasing the PKK, is there any reason why another country -- say, Iran -- should not feel that they should have the same privilege? I dare say the Irani can find some group in Iraq whom they feel is a "threat" to their sovereignty, security, or some such.
Of course, Turkey is our ally, so we are unlikely to do more than "tut, tut" about their actions. Iran is not so fortunate. Any incursion by Iran into Iraq would be met by "cry[ing] 'Havoc' and let slip the dogs of war." Again. Probably with the same degree of planning and intelligence that we had going into Iraq.
God forbid.
In the original article at:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2759732.ece
Barzani said:
“If they attack our people, our interests, our territories then there will be no limit because everything is subject to that incursion.”
The "interests" are Barzani's 100+ companies in Turkey which are about to be hit. He first said that it didnt bother him, now he says there is no limit, which can only mean terrorist attacks in Diyar Bakr (the main city in Turkeys Kurdish region) which he had threatened before.
Such an attack would suit the Turks perfectly as it would make him a clear target for attacks. That, in turn, will be music to the ears of his eternal rival Talabani and a good way out for the Americans.
An ex-member of the US military, Michael W. Nance, who "led, witnessed and supervised" water-boarding training for the Navy SERE school - Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape - in San Diego has a blog post titled Water-boarding is Torture… Period. There seem to be different types of SERE schools which Special Forces and others in the military go though depending on military requirements. However Nance as a "former Master Instructor and Chief of Training at the US Navy Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School (SERE) in San Diego, California." Nance also had a book published in April called "The Terrorists of Iraq – Inside the Strategy and Tactics of the Iraq Insurgency".
Nance says in his blog post that the San Diego SERE school was "designed to show how an evil totalitarian, enemy would use torture at the slightest whim." He says in his blog post "I know the water-board personally and intimately. SERE staff were required to undergo the water board at its fullest. I was no exception. I have personally led, witnessed and supervised water-boarding of hundreds of people."
Nance argues that unless "you have been strapped down to the board, have endured the agonizing feeling of the water overpowering your gag reflex, and then feel your throat open and allow pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs, you will not know the meaning of the word." His blog post also makes the following points:
1. Water-boarding is a torture technique.
2. Water-boarding is not a simulation.
3. If you support the use of water-boarding on enemy captives, you support the use of that torture on any future American captives.
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