BREAKING : Turks Attack Inside Iraq - Helicopters Attack Villages

Monday 7:00 EST

CNN

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) -- Turkish helicopter gunships attacked

villages inside Iraq on Tuesday, Iraqi officials said, the first such

airstrike since border tensions have escalated in recent months.

It also was the first major Turkish action against Kurdish rebels

since Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met President Bush

in Washington earlier this month.

Col. Hussein Tamir, an Iraqi Army officer who supervises border

guards, said the airstrikes occurred before dawn on abandoned villages

near Zakhu, an Iraqi Kurdish town near the border with Turkey. There

were no casualties, he said.

A spokesman for the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, corroborated

Tamir's account. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not

authorized to speak to media.

The United States and Iraq have pressured Turkey to avoid a

large-scale attack on PKK bases in northern Iraq, fearing such an

operation would destabilize what has been the calmest region in the

country.

U.S. authorities have agreed, however, to share intelligence about

positions of Kurdish rebels with Turkey, possibly enabling the Turkish

military to carry out limited assaults.

"The United States has declared the PKK as the common enemy. The

struggle against this enemy will be maintained until it is

eliminated," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told

lawmakers in Parliament on Tuesday.

Tens of thousands of Turkish troops have massed in the country's

southeast ahead of a possible operation in Iraq. A series of

hit-and-run attacks by PKK rebels has left nearly 50 dead, primarily

Turkish soldiers, since late September.

- - - - -

And so it begins ... a wider war. A war within a war.

How long before the Syrians get involved ? There's a

Kurdish area in the northeast of their country too,

not far from where this new fighting is going on.

And what do WE do ? So far we've been on good terms

with the Kurds, we've let them pretty much run their

own territory as an almost-independent country. In

exchange they've been proxy scouts for us, helping

keep an eye on Irans northern border. The Kurds have

no love for al-Qaida either.

So what happens when they ask us to intervene against

Turkish attacks ? Despite some mutual annoyance, we

NEED Turkey and Turkish good will. Its geography is

key - our gateway between europe and Iraq, not to

mention how its borders also meet Syria and Iran.

If Turkish counter-attacks are brief and carefully

limited there may not be a big problem. Many Kurds

do not support a militaristic path towards a larger,

indepenent, Kurdistan which annexes Turkish territory.

However if this war within a war persists, spreads,

starts racking-up "collateral damage" against non-

combatants and non-militants ...

Well ... with helicopters attacking "villages" rather

than mountain rebel camps it's likely the "collateral

damage" is already being done.

So what do WE do ?

B1ackwater wrote:

>

> So what do WE do ?

What? Is something amiss with Dear Leader's glorious Mesopotamian

adventure? There could be a silver lining if this dissuades The

Exulted One from attacking the evil Persians.

As for what YOU do, I recommend every war supporter seek out their

nearest military recruiter. Or maybe approach one of the "security"

firms. Or at least get a job driving trucks or slinging hash for

Halliburton.

War! Huh Good God y'all

What is it good for?

Absolutely nothing

Say it again.

--Jeff

--

"Power never concedes anything without a

demand. It never has and it never will."

--Frederick Douglass