Turkish Warning to Iraq
The situation on Iraq's northern border remains tense, and the reported warning delivered to Iraq by Turkey is in some sense, just more of the same of what has been coming out of Ankara for, really, the past four years. What caught my eye, though, was this point:
Baran and some others expect U.S. forces to join in if Turkey does act against the rebels in northern Iraq. The scenario most often cited is an operation involving U.S. and Turkish special forces already in northern Iraq.
"I do believe that the Americans . . . are probably getting ready to do something jointly with Turkey, but they really don't want the Turks to go on their own," Baran said.
It has always been something of a given that if Turkey was to launch a full-scale attack across the border, that the US would get dragged into the conflict, but this is the first time I've heard plans for the US to help start the ball rolling. Given the potential can of worms such a conflict would open for the Americans, I have a hard time believing that they would want to start conducting military operations in the area.
On the other hand, given their record, and the whole, "if all you have is a (military) hammer, every problem looks like a (bombing target) nail" approach to foreign policy problems, this has the ring of possibility.
