Does Turkey have plans to invade Iraq?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Can we send Bush to prison yet?

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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/31/224538/308

[Padfoot]

I read about this too.  I'm sure they have plans drawn up for an Iraq invasion but I'm not sure they will act on them.  If they do I think it would be the straw that breaks the elephant's back.  I doubt that many Republicans would continue to support the war if Turkey invades Kurdistan.  I'm not convinced that turkey would actually invade though.  Such a move would cause instability in a fairly peaceful region of Iraq and I doubt that any of Iraq's neighbors really want to provoke more violence.

[minionofmidas]

They've done it before, and nobody cared.

[MODU]

This isn't anything new, and it was a concern prior to re-entering Iraq.  Turkey has been dealing with the Kurdish separatists within their borders for years.

[minionofmidas]

Anyways this is mostly internally-inspired. Sabre-rattling by the military with the hope of pushing their darling's vote tallies up.

This isn't to say that they wouldn't actually invade Iraqi Kurdistan, mind you, just that they wouldn't be doing it because of anything happening in Iraqi Kurdistan.

[Colin]

Well Turkey wouldn't invade Iraq with an American presence still there, they know that that would be suicide and most likely get them thrown out of NATO. What is most likely is that if the US leaves and Kurdistan tries to become independent we could see a Turkish intervention in the North to "protect the Turkomen minority from Kurdish oppression" but really to stop the possibility of the creation of a Kurdish state in order to keep these ideas from spreading to Turkey.

The Kossacks have overstated the immediate threat while completely ignoring the more likely threat of a Turkish invasion after an American pullout. A Turkish invasion with American troops still there would basically mean an end to Turkish participation in NATO, we'd make sure of that, and an end to US support of Turkey's EU dreams, which will probably become totally dreams if they do something stupid like attack Iraq while American troops still occupy the country.

[minionofmidas]

Well Turkey wouldn't invade Iraq with an American presence still there, they know that that would be suicide and most likely get them thrown out of NATO. What is most likely is that if the US leaves and Kurdistan tries to become independent we could see a Turkish intervention in the North to "protect the Turkomen minority from Kurdish oppression" but really to stop the possibility of the creation of a Kurdish state in order to keep these ideas from spreading to Turkey.

No, it'll be as part of the "Worldwide War on Terrorism" - taking out the PKK bases in North Iraq and the PKK enabling Barsani regime.

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I don't see much of a reason to believe that the US would care in the least. They never have.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Does the Turkish government want to invade Kurdistan? No.

Does the Turkish military want to invade Kurdistan? Yes.

[minionofmidas]

Does the Turkish government want to invade Kurdistan? No.

Does the Turkish military want to invade Kurdistan? Yes.

Indeed, that much is obvious. (Btw, "does Turkey have plans to invade Iraq" is a stupid question. Of course they do. Just as the Russians *had plans* to invade West Germany and the Americans *had plans* to invade the GDR. That doesn't mean they intend to enact those plans anytime soon.)

[Colin]

Does the Turkish government want to invade Kurdistan? No.

Does the Turkish military want to invade Kurdistan? Yes.

Indeed, that much is obvious. (Btw, "does Turkey have plans to invade Iraq" is a stupid question. Of course they do. Just as the Russians *had plans* to invade West Germany and the Americans *had plans* to invade the GDR. That doesn't mean they intend to enact those plans anytime soon.)

Hey, America still has plans on how to invade Canada left over from after WWI.

[MODU]

I agree that something needs to be done with the PKK.  A double-standard is created by fighting terrorism but leaving this one particular group to operate freely because we are friends of the Kurds.

[Gabu]

I agree that something needs to be done with the PKK.  A double-standard is created by fighting terrorism but leaving this one particular group to operate freely because we are friends of the Kurds.

As if nobody has ever had such a double standard with friends before?

[MODU]

I agree that something needs to be done with the PKK.  A double-standard is created by fighting terrorism but leaving this one particular group to operate freely because we are friends of the Kurds.

As if nobody has ever had such a double standard with friends before?

hahha . . . hey, it's never too late to try. 

[Padfoot]

The entire War on Terror has been an ill-defined double standard from the very beginning.  There are hundreds of terrorist groups across the globe yet the only ones we really care about are in the Middle East.  A more accurate name for Bush's war on terror would be the War on Radical Islam.

Declaring "war" on anything aside from a specific group or nation is always a bad idea and will leave you fighting against an idea or abstract for all eternity.  There will always be terrorists and so there will always be a "war on terror" just as there will always be a "war on drugs" and a "war on poverty."  You can't declare war on abstracts and expect to win.  It's a fool's venture.