How Tom Lantos and Nana Pelosi started the next war.
AP reported a couple of hour ago:
"ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey ordered its ambassador in Washington to return to Turkey for consultations over a U.S. House panel's approval of a bill describing the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians as genocide, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday."
Before the vote, W. said that passage of this resolution "Would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror," and he's absolutely right. [Gag!] I mean what are Nana Pelosi & Tom Lantos thinking about? Is ramming through Resolution 106 really necessary right now?
In an example of craven pandering Representative Brad Sherman of California said of W.'s opposition to this massive mistake, "Despite President George Bush twisting arms and making deals, justice prevailed. For if we hope to stop future genocides we need to admit to those horrific acts of the past."
Right, execpt that this resolution won't bring back any of those Aremenians that died almost a century ago and it might very well get us dragged into a conflagration that will make WW-I look like a tea party.
Even before this vote came up things had been heating up on the northern Iraqi border, on both the Turkish and Iranian side. For months the Iranains have been shelling the Kurdish side of their border, that's trouble enough. At the same time the PKK in south-eastern Turkey have been killing dozens of Turkish soldiers in a low intensity insurgency that's rapidly coming to a fast boil.
The Turks have been building up their forces along the northern Iraqi border conducting "hot pursuit" incursions into Iraqi Kurdistan against the PKK but now it seems the real show is about to begin.
AP reported two days ago:
"Turkey's ruling party decided Tuesday to seek parliamentary approval for an offensive against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq, a move that could open a new front in the Iraq war and disrupt one of that nation's few relatively peaceful areas. . . Turkey's decision to seek a parliamentary go-ahead was made during a three-hour meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and officials from his governing Justice and Development Party, said a leading member of the party who was at the meeting. . . Earlier Tuesday, the government said it had begun preparations for a military operation into Iraq in pursuit of the rebels after a series of deadly attacks on soldiers in recent days outraged Turks."
Any chance our government might have had to persuade the Turks to lay-off the PKK has gone right out the window with this vote. The average Turk on the street was already not very happy with the US before this historic blunder. Just last month worldpublicopinion.org reported:
"Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Turkish respondents name the United States—which guarantees Turkish security as a NATO ally and has urged the EU to accept Turkish membership—as the country that poses the 'greatest threat' to Turkey in the future, Pew found. Among the Middle Eastern publics asked the open-ended question by Pew, only in Turkey did a majority name the United States."
Remember, Turkey used to be one of our staunchest allies. It was because of Rummy's and Wolfowitz's bullying before the war that things have gotten so bad, but the last thing we needed to do right now was stick a flaming poker into their eye.
My God, and even if the Turkish military can be convinced not to cross the Rubicon, it's not like they aren't going to really stick it to us in Iraq. As Sec Def Robert Gates tried to explain the Dumbocrats before this vote on genocide: About a third of the fuel for our troops goes through Turkey along with about 70% of our air freight. Gates said, "Access to airfields and to the roads and so on in Turkey would very much be put at risk if this resolution passes, and Turkey reacts as strongly as we believe they will."
And you know they will.
And besides all this, once the Turks cross over, the Kurds will defend their border. Our best buddies in Iraq the Kurds who have been Masquerading as regular Iraq Army units, will get into their transports and head for the north, leaving us holding the bag in Baghdad.
Nice work Democrats!
"ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey ordered its ambassador in Washington to return to Turkey for consultations over a U.S. House panel's approval of a bill describing the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians as genocide, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday."
Before the vote, W. said that passage of this resolution "Would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror," and he's absolutely right. [Gag!] I mean what are Nana Pelosi & Tom Lantos thinking about? Is ramming through Resolution 106 really necessary right now?
In an example of craven pandering Representative Brad Sherman of California said of W.'s opposition to this massive mistake, "Despite President George Bush twisting arms and making deals, justice prevailed. For if we hope to stop future genocides we need to admit to those horrific acts of the past."
Right, execpt that this resolution won't bring back any of those Aremenians that died almost a century ago and it might very well get us dragged into a conflagration that will make WW-I look like a tea party.
Even before this vote came up things had been heating up on the northern Iraqi border, on both the Turkish and Iranian side. For months the Iranains have been shelling the Kurdish side of their border, that's trouble enough. At the same time the PKK in south-eastern Turkey have been killing dozens of Turkish soldiers in a low intensity insurgency that's rapidly coming to a fast boil.
The Turks have been building up their forces along the northern Iraqi border conducting "hot pursuit" incursions into Iraqi Kurdistan against the PKK but now it seems the real show is about to begin.
AP reported two days ago:
"Turkey's ruling party decided Tuesday to seek parliamentary approval for an offensive against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq, a move that could open a new front in the Iraq war and disrupt one of that nation's few relatively peaceful areas. . . Turkey's decision to seek a parliamentary go-ahead was made during a three-hour meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and officials from his governing Justice and Development Party, said a leading member of the party who was at the meeting. . . Earlier Tuesday, the government said it had begun preparations for a military operation into Iraq in pursuit of the rebels after a series of deadly attacks on soldiers in recent days outraged Turks."
Any chance our government might have had to persuade the Turks to lay-off the PKK has gone right out the window with this vote. The average Turk on the street was already not very happy with the US before this historic blunder. Just last month worldpublicopinion.org reported:
"Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Turkish respondents name the United States—which guarantees Turkish security as a NATO ally and has urged the EU to accept Turkish membership—as the country that poses the 'greatest threat' to Turkey in the future, Pew found. Among the Middle Eastern publics asked the open-ended question by Pew, only in Turkey did a majority name the United States."
Remember, Turkey used to be one of our staunchest allies. It was because of Rummy's and Wolfowitz's bullying before the war that things have gotten so bad, but the last thing we needed to do right now was stick a flaming poker into their eye.
My God, and even if the Turkish military can be convinced not to cross the Rubicon, it's not like they aren't going to really stick it to us in Iraq. As Sec Def Robert Gates tried to explain the Dumbocrats before this vote on genocide: About a third of the fuel for our troops goes through Turkey along with about 70% of our air freight. Gates said, "Access to airfields and to the roads and so on in Turkey would very much be put at risk if this resolution passes, and Turkey reacts as strongly as we believe they will."
And you know they will.
And besides all this, once the Turks cross over, the Kurds will defend their border. Our best buddies in Iraq the Kurds who have been Masquerading as regular Iraq Army units, will get into their transports and head for the north, leaving us holding the bag in Baghdad.
Nice work Democrats!
posted by William Duane at 2:29 PM
1 Comments:
News story on Friday:
"WASHINGTON - There are about 60,000 Turkish troops along the country's southern border, but the U.S. military is seeing no activity to suggest an imminent offensive against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, U.S. officials said Friday..
A U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said Friday that any offensive by Turkey into what has been a relatively peaceful area of northern Iraq would likely involve airstrikes and mortar fire.
But so far, the official said, there has been no evidence of Turkish soldiers massing along the border. The number of troops there isn't unusual, the official said."
http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/nation/washington/cabinet/10511847.html
Famous last words?
NYT today:
BAGHDAD, Oct. 15 — Tensions mounted along the Iraqi-Turkish border on Monday as the Turkish government sought parliamentary approval for authorizing military raids into northern Iraq. The vote in Parliament would permit Turkish armed forces to cross the border in pursuit of Kurdish rebels who launch attacks into Turkey from Iraqi Kurdistan . . .
The Turkish Parliament is expected to vote on Wednesday and approve the motion, which would authorize the Turkish military to make as many entries across the Iraqi border as necessary for a period of one year. The raids would be aimed solely at the P.K.K., said a government spokesman, Cemil Cicek, in a televised news conference."
Yeah right, that doesn't sound too bad, except for the potential escalation with the Peshmerga that will inevitably happen.
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