Exactly What We Don't Need Right Now

Great...

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish warplanes bombed 70 Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq on Monday, the military said.

Turkey, which is planning operations against the rebels with the help of U.S. intelligence, has reported five aerial attacks against the PKK guerrilla group in northern Iraq in the past two months. The PKK, which is led by Turkish Kurds who seek autonomy in southeastern Turkey, has launched attacks over the frontier into Turkey from safe havens in Iraq.

"Warplanes belonging to the Turkish Air Force hit targets of the PKK terrorist organization in the Avasin-Basyan and Hakurk regions of northern Iraq in an effective aerial attack that began at 3:00 a.m. (0100 GMT)," the military said on its Web site.

It said the planes hit 70 targets that were "detected and verified by intelligence sources," but did not specify the origin of the intelligence. All planes returned safely from the 12-hour operation, the military said.

"Utmost sensitivity was shown so that the civilian population in the region was not affected," it said.

Adem Uzun, a member of the rebel command, said 15 to 20 Turkish jets bombed rebel areas in northern Iraq, according to Firat, a Kurdish news agency. The agency reported that Uzun said in an interview with a Denmark-based Kurdish television station that the rebels had not suffered any casualties.

Senior Iraqi Kurdish officials confirmed earlier Monday that Turkish jets bombed areas near the towns of Khnera, Khwakurd and Sidakan in Irbil province.

I don't know about you, but a "twelve hour" air operation that hits "70 targets" and is carried out by "15 to 20" aircraft constitutes a pretty clear violation of a whole range of international laws and doesn't say much for the sovereignty of Iraq, does it?

Officially, we're telling the Turks NOT to invade, but as long as they can come across the border and bomb anything they want--reportedly, five times since the middle of December--than who cares, right?

I know, I know. No one's paying attention anymore because the surge is working.

Rice is nothing more than "an errand-girl, sent by grocery clerks"

And Tuesday, when she paid a surprise visit to Iraq, Kurdish President Massoud Barzani, who leads the autonomous Kurdistan region, snubbed her with extreme prejudice. Of course, even a blind man could see the reason for Rice's impromptu Iraq pop-in...She was sent to stem the tide of Kurdish outrage that was unleashed by the Turkish attacks on the Kurdish terrorists in Iraq.

Just hours before her arrival, approximately 500 Turkish troops had crossed the border into northern Iraq to attack PKK terrorists in the safe haven they have enjoyed since the American invasion. On Sunday, the Turkish military conducted airstrikes against Kurdish terrorists hiding out in Iraq, sending a clear signal that the days of coddling Kurdish terrorists in Iraq are drawing to an end. Just as significant as the raids themselves: The United States military provided real-time intelligence to the Turks for the air strikes.

The United States is now firmly wedged between a rock (Iraq?) and a hard spot. On the one hand, the Kurdish autonomous region is the only part of Iraq that isn't an unmitigated disaster, but Turkey is our NATO ally. That alliance with Turkey is of reemerging importance, with Russia thumbing it's collective nose at the United States on a regular schedule these days.

And here is where it gets dicey real quick.

Former Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari is cooperating with Turkey on the fate of Kirkuk (which is home to a large Turkmen population that opposes inclusion of Kirkuk into the emerging Kurdistan) and whether it will be part of the Kurdistan Regional Authority.

The Kirkuk issue was a major contributing factor to the collapse of the Jaafari government and led to his replacement with Nuri Kemal al-Maliki. Maliki has very little support and if the Kurdish deputies start opposing him with their votes, or with a boycott, that would likely spell the end of the Maliki government. At the very least, it offsets the progress made by Sunni politicians that just in the last few days have agreed to call off their boycott of participating in the government.

The United States has, to this point, been reluctant to confront Barzani over the tolerance of PKK terrorists; mostly because of the implications such an action is almost certain to have for the Maliki government. The agreement that brings the Sunni politicians back in is tenuous at best, and a tussle between Kurds and Arabs could tank not just the agreement, but the entire government.

The head of Kurdistan's foreign relations department, Falah Mustafa Bakir, said that the United States support for the Turkish raids represented a nadir in relations between the semi-autonomous Kurds and the United States. "Morally and legally, they are responsible for providing security to the Iraqi people and protecting the sovereignty of Iraqi borders," Bakir said, referring to the U.S. military.

Of course, the inept errand girl backpedaled a bit in Baghdad and downplayed the terrorist threat of the PKK; and the M$M, good little cocktail-weenie waggers that they are, played along, quoting her as saying (Irony Alert!!!) "We have made it clear to the Turkish government that we continue to have concerns about anything that leads to innocent civilian casualties. The United States has constantly counseled that we need an overall, comprehensive approach to this problem."

So let's just do a quick recap of the wacky, mad-cap free-for-all that is Iraq, thanks to the idiot prince: Over 20% of the population has fled their homes, whether taking up refugee status in those vacation wonderlands of Jordan and Syria, or internally displaced. Most of the country has no electricity or potable water. The United States has resorted to arming Sunni militants who comprised the insurgency until they rented out their loyalty temporarily for cash, ammo and guns. This has pissed off the Shi'ite led government that is propped up by the United States, and now we are in the middle of an ethnic struggle that has been brewing since on or about March 6, 983 B.C.

But hey, the most inept and incompetent Secretary of State ever is on the scene and on the case, so it can certainly get worse!

(As always, Juan Cole has a better post on this than I do.)

Iraq appeals to Iran for help defusing the Kurdish crisis

As tensions ratchet up between Turkey and Iraq over PKK terrorists who find safe haven in Iraq from which to stage cross-border raids and kill Turkish soldiers, and the United States stands by helplessly, unable to even comprehend the scope of the clusterfuck created by the hubris of George Bush, Iraq is reaching out to Iran for help.

That's gonna go over like a pregnant pole vaulter.

On Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki met with Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki and asked him to help present Iraq's positions at a regional summit meeting in Istanbul scheduled for Thursday. “The prime minister asked the Islamic Republic to present their full support to Iraq during the Istanbul meeting and also to participate in solving the border crisis between Turkey and the P.K.K.,” a statement from Mr. Maliki’s office said. The summit will be attended by representatives from countries in the region, including Syria, Iran, Iraq andTurkey. The United States will be represented by Condoleeza Rice, and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and a number of other foreign ministers are also expected to attend.

P.K.K. terrorists have killed over 35,000 Turks since launching their most recent separatist terror campaign in the 80's. For perspective, consider that in 2 decades, the P.K.K. has killed ten times the number of Turks that America lost on September 11.

Turkey, tired of the terrorists who attack them finding safe haven in Iraq, hiding beneath the petticoats of Turkey's NATO ally the United States in the Kurdish north of Iraq, has massed troops on the border and announced that they will pursue Peshmerga and P.K.K. fighters across the border, engage them and kill them.

Iran has been sympathetic to the Turkish position, because the P.K.K. launches terrorist raids into Iran as well. But the situation is not that simple. Iran and Iraq are both Shi'ite majority countries, and the Iraqi government is Shi'ite majority (al Maliki spent many of his years in exile in Tehran).

From the New York Times:

Iraqi diplomats said they were worried that after the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met with President Bush on Nov. 5, Turkey may take action against the Kurdish guerrillas, a step that could further antagonize Iraq’s Kurds.

“They are under a lot of pressure from the public, so we think they will do something,” said a senior Iraqi official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter. “We hope they will not.”

Mr. Erdogan has asked the United States to help the Turks take “concrete steps” to reduce the P.K.K. threat.

In Washington, Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon spokesman, confirmed that the United States military was giving “lots of intelligence” to Turkey in its effort to halt the rebel attacks.

As if the situation were not complicated enough, the American forces are still holding five Iranians that were taken into custody in January. Iran says they are diplomats, the United States insists they are members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. “The arresting of Iranian consular officials is a very big strategic mistake,” said Mr. Mottaki. Mr. Mottaki also expressed his displeasure at a comment made by General Petraeus that the Iranian ambassador in Baghdad was a member of the Quds Force, an elite unit of the Revolutionary Guard.

And I would like to point out, again, that Petraeus really hasn't done much, if anything, right. Last summer, he managed to piss Maliki off to the point that Maliki threatened to have the General recalled. Generals have to be politicians, that's how they get past the rank of Captain. But this is 4G warfare. They need to be diplomats. And lets differentiate right now: diplomacy and ass kissing are two completely different things. Petraeus has a handle on the latter, there's no doubt. But the former? Not so much.