Top Turkish general fears Kurds will be new U.S. ally vs. Iraq

The World Tribune ^ | 4 March, 2003

[gulfcoast6]

Three, three politicitians voted to break their country.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

Anti-Americanism has negative consequences -- now THERE'S a novel thought!

[Happy2BMe]

"Big New Idea - how about we land the 4th armoured in Israel instead of turkey and just drive through Jordan (and Syria)."

This whole giant cluster bomb has put a whole new skew on how logistics will be planned for years to come.

Don't leave Israel out of the picture - it could actually happen.

[sandydipper]

Turkey wants US to allow them to occupy Northern Iraq and ?? the oil fields - suprise suprise!! The Kurds want the oil fields and the Eastern 1/3 of Turkey.

We need to shut down any aide to Turkey and take the oil fields for ourselves.

[Happy2BMe]

"Anti-Americanism has negative consequences -- now THERE'S a novel thought!"

THEY DON'T ALL STINK IN HOLLYWOOD: A LIST OF THE *BAD* GUYS

[George W. Bush]

Look for Iran to start assembling its forces on the borders too. We're in negotiations with them recently.

[johniegrad]

Tom's question goes to the heart of the matter. This appears to be an affair now in which the military is asking Washington to help them work out something with the civilian government. Interesting in that the new party in power is an Islamic party and in that the military has seemed to hold on to the ultimate power in this country. I suspect the military may also fear the adverse effects this could have on NATO as well.

[George W. Bush]

We need to shut down any aide to Turkey and take the oil fields for ourselves.

Those oilfields are the property of the national governement of Iraq and will remain so.

We're not a colonial power. With few puny and meaningless exceptions undertaken for national security reasons, we never have been and never will be.

[richardtavor]

I'm not so sure about Turkey. I can't really trust someone that killed over a million Christians.

[Happy2BMe]

"I can't really trust someone that killed over a million Christians."

Why don't the Kurds love the Turks?

[BOBTHENAILER]

With a little diplomatic effort, the United States should be able to make both the Kurds and Turks enemies.

No doubt. With the attitude going in, that America ALWAYS screws up, and FORCES the innocent Turks and Kurds into hating us, the blame America first premise has all the hallmarks of succeeding.

Personally, I don't give a hoot whether they like us or not. They didn't get hit in NY and they won't be doing the bulk of the heavy lifting while removing Saddam.

[richardtavor]

The million Christians that I mentioned were the Armenians. They just about wiped them out. SE Turkey is part of what used to be Kurdistan. The Turkish Ottoman Empire controlled the whole Middle East until 1923--The Turks tried for centuries to wipe out the Kurds, but never could--Kurds are incredible fighters (unless gassed by Saddam.) The thing that Turkey worries about now, is that if the Kurds are armed by the U.S. and becomes an ally, they could take back a third of Turkey. Their Parliament didn't think this through. I rather save the $30 billion.

[Happy2BMe]

Tue Mar 4, 1:04 PM ET

Thousands of Iraqi Kurdish people attend a demonstration to protest possible Turkish intervention in the event of war with Iraq (news - web sites), in Aqra city, northern Iraq, an area controlled by Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Tuesday, March 4, 2003.

[Happy2BMe]

BUMP

[Happy2BMe]

BUMP

[Redcloak]

Top Turkish general fears Kurds will be new U.S. ally vs. Iraq

Ya think?

[Happy2BMe]

"Ya think?"

They BLEW IT - ROYALLY!

[Happy2BMe]

BUMP

[happygrl]

Which side should we take?

If we fight Turkey, it would surely spell the end of NATO. Greece and Turkey fought a war in the late 1970s; both are NATO members, but this was on the periphery of Nato concerns.

But for us to cross swords with a NATO member would destroy the trans Atlantic idea of NATO. It seems that Turkey finds its identity more as an Islamic nation than a European nation. The irony is that I'm sure there were back-stage telephone calls from France, Germany and Belgium threatening to pull the plug on EU membership if they didn't vote against aiding the U.S. in Iraq.

[Doe Eyes]

The end result of the Turkish action may be the creation of the nation of Kurdistan.