The Young Turks

The Bushies like to point to the Northern, Kurdish section of Iraq as their example of "success." The Kurds have been lucky enough to be away from the center of conflicts and have been avle to concentrate on what they would prefer - independence. They even have their own little "terrorist" groups in Turkey and Iran, causing strife and clashing with the respective government forces.

The Kurds in Iraq disavow any control over these "rebels," but that isn't stopping Iran and Turkey from starting a shelling campaign into "Kurdistan" in an effort to "secure their borders."

What a pickle for the Bushies.

They would love to use the excuse of Iran shelling an "ally" to further their Iranian Attack Plan, but they can't vilify Iran without villifying our good friend Turkey at the same time.

I don't pretend to understand all the historical and geo-political tensions between these three parties, but at this point it appears that Turkey and Iran are teaming up against the Kurdish "rebels".

"Frustrated by the reluctance of the US and the government in Baghdad to crack down on the PKK bases inside Iraq, Turkish generals have hinted they are considering a large-scale military operation across the border. They are said to be sharing intelligence about Kurdish rebel movements with their Iranian counterparts.

Wouldn't this be a good time to find out where OUR "leaders" stand in all this? Before the bombs start dropping and a spokesman comes on the telly to say, "No one could have anticipated this..."?

AND WHY THE HELL DON'T WE HAVE A HUNDRED DIPLOMATS ON THE SCENE?

THIS is EXACTLY the situation that the U.N. was created for. Their mission has been perverted into a "buffer zone force" after hostilities have broken out, but their real strength is in getting people talking before things get out of hand. If the powerful nations of the world would LET the U.N. do what it's charter calls for instead of using it like a schoolyard monitor to further their own nationalistic goals, maybe the U.N. would stop being blamed for not doing what they aren't supposed to be doing in the first place.

But since that isn't part of the grander scheme, the Bushies will concentrate on how to blame Iran for the whole kit-and-kaboodle. It probably won't be until after a conflict with Iran has gone on for a year or more that our wonderfully independent press will bother to look beyond the "offilcial" reasoning. Turkey will only be mentioned in passing, and the "struggling young democracy" of the Kurds will be highlighted as part of Iran's involvement in trying to "destabalize" Iraq.- carefully avoiding the continual call from Kurds to be separated from Iraq proper.

It's already here, in a backhanded way. The source above is a Brit publication and the headline reads, "Kurds flee homes as Iran shells Iraq's northern frontier."  Eye-catching, isn't it? I highlighed "Iran" because that's what the news "skimmer" will see. No mention of Turkey to distract the skimmer. The first sentence however, is "Turkey and Iran have dispatched tanks, artillery and thousands of troops to their frontiers with Iraq during the past few weeks in what appears to be a coordinated effort to disrupt the activities of Kurdish rebel bases."

Right-wing (putting it mildly) "go to guy" for the correct propaganda, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, reports that the U.S. and Turkey already have a "handshake deal" in place. He suggests that "one potential flash point in the Middle East seems to have been resolved is unambiguously good news"  but in a later column reports, "There have also been a number of reported Turkish incursions into Iraq."  
 
After all, it can't be THAT much of a problem if Turkey is only willing to commit 50,000 troops and hundreds of tanks and military vehicles. Then there are the reports of several DAYS worth of heavy artillery fire into Iraq by the Turkish forces.

I guess since the "Terrorists" are the PKK and Israel isn't involved, there's no reason for the world to take notice.   &n bsp;