Posted on 12/08/2015 12:39:36 PM PST by amorphous
That sounds more dramatic than it actually was. Turkey sent around 150 soldiers and two dozens tanks to Bashiqa, just northeast of Mosul in what Ankara described as an effort to replace an existing contingent of around 90 troops that have supposedly been on a "training" mission with the Peshmerga for the better part of two years.
As we documented over the weekend, this is hardly the first time the Turks have entered the country.
However, the circumstances are quite different this time around. That is, this isn't a anti-terror mission aimed at tracking the PKK. Over the weekend, we asked if Turkey was simply trying to protect lucrative oil smuggling routes run by both ISIS and the KRG. On Sunday, an angry Iraq gave Ankara 48 hours to withdraw the troops - or else.
Ok, or else what? Or else Iran’s Shiite militias will hunt them down and kill them according to a statement from Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada. On top of that, at least one influential Shiite politician (the infamous Moktada al-Sadr-linked Hakim al-Zamili) wants PM Abadi to appeal to Moscow for "direct military intervention."
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
You missed the point - they blew the opportunity for ‘regime change’ and are already well down the road to the dark side. Second largest military in NATO means jack squat - most of them are barely literate conscripts in their Army, which controls the entire Armed Forces. When you learn Turkish, move there and work with their military for two years, come on back and we can have a serious discussion.
I did not miss the point.
I contravened your statement that Turkey has few useful strengths.
Second largest military in NATO may mean jack squat to you, but it quite significant to a rational decision maker. So are the other many important and unique factors that Turkey brings.
Having spent time in Turkey, or speaking some Turkish is irrelevant to justifying a policy that is clearly driven more by emotional pique than sober analysis.
No offense, but your comment sounds much like the pogues at the puzzle palace who spent a week attending cocktail parties in Istanbul and magically became experts on the entire country.
No offense, but your proposal sounds like that of a simple-minded drunken bigot.
Math is math. 1,000 main battle tanks in working order is the largest such force in the Middle East.
I was there - you weren’t. Doubt you’ve ever spent a day in uniform so STFU.
STFU pogue. You got no right to insult people.
It just looks stupid when you are wrong, and you are wrong.
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