Iraq Imbroglio Intensifies
Things are changing by the hour and getting intense. I still haven't been persuaded that this isn't a backdoor way for Israel/US to start their war with Iran, but I'm starting to see a shift in priorities and allegiances that are leaving me scratching my head.
I had thought that the US would drop any pretences of protecting the Kurds in northern Iraq while fellow NATO member Turkey invaded to fight the separatists along the border. After all, the Kurds have been an expendable group, the largest minority in the world without a homeland, a fact that all countries in the area want to perpetuate. Turkey has that massive army on the border, the US just picked up and left the area as if to get out of the way and hasn't said much in the way of warning Turkey to back off. That in itself is puzzling because when Turkish forces invade all hell could bust loose in Iraq, Iran and Turkey itself with a Kurdish population in the millions.
However just in the last several days the situation is getting a whole lot more complicated. Turkey is fast falling out of favor with the west. It's attempt to join the European Union is being stymied and it's Kurdish problem isn't helping. Ankara seems to think the EU is a christian club that's reluctant to admit a muslim nation. Relations are souring with the US by the hour, and even though they're about to go to war against the Kurds, the Turks see the US as the greatest threat to them. Bushista bigwigs, on their part, are still pissed that Turkey refused to help in the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The US has been helping the Kurds with finances, weapons and training, yet a Turkish invasion would close the border to economic activity and curtail military activity at the massive air base at Incirlik.
Could this mess get any more complicated? Oh you betcha.
Just like the US, Israel has been on good terms with both The Turks and the Kurds. Anxious to ally themselves with non muslim groups in the region they've been a presence in Kurdistan for decades, especially after the US invasion. The alliance between Turkey and Israel is an intricate one, more about that here.
Then there's the drug connection, where Turkey has maintained it's importance in the Afghanistan to Europe opium and heroin pipeline, which shadowy US groups desperately want to keep going:
"Turkey is a major transshipment point. Turkey is also a base of operations for international narcotics traffickers and associates trafficking in opium, morphine base, heroin, precursor chemicals and other drugs. The majority of these opiates originate in Afghanistan, and are ultimately trafficked to Western Europe. A smaller but still not insignificant amount of heroin is trafficked to the U.S. via Turkey."
Add to this the fact that Iran and Turkey are getting closer and cooporating more because they have common interest in fighting Kurdish seperatists.
Then there's also this oddball development:
"As tensions with Iraq increase over the reported shelling, Iraqi radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr -- who commands the Mahdi Army, a militia of tens of thousands of young, impoverished Shiites, who are accused of spearheading a sectarian conflict against Iraq's minority Sunnis -- said "we will not be silent in the face of this threat." Vowing to defend the people of "Kurdistan," Sadr called on the people of Turkey to stop their armed forces from carrying out cross-border shelling in Iraq, in a statement in Najaf."
That's right - radical Shiite muslims accused of sectarian violence against Sunnis are willing to protect Kurds who are mainly Sunni and aligned with Jews by fighting Turks who are mainly Sunni and also aligned with Jews and may have to also fight Iranians who are mainly fellow Shiites who are getting closer to the mainly Sunni Turks.
I had thought that the US would drop any pretences of protecting the Kurds in northern Iraq while fellow NATO member Turkey invaded to fight the separatists along the border. After all, the Kurds have been an expendable group, the largest minority in the world without a homeland, a fact that all countries in the area want to perpetuate. Turkey has that massive army on the border, the US just picked up and left the area as if to get out of the way and hasn't said much in the way of warning Turkey to back off. That in itself is puzzling because when Turkish forces invade all hell could bust loose in Iraq, Iran and Turkey itself with a Kurdish population in the millions.
However just in the last several days the situation is getting a whole lot more complicated. Turkey is fast falling out of favor with the west. It's attempt to join the European Union is being stymied and it's Kurdish problem isn't helping. Ankara seems to think the EU is a christian club that's reluctant to admit a muslim nation. Relations are souring with the US by the hour, and even though they're about to go to war against the Kurds, the Turks see the US as the greatest threat to them. Bushista bigwigs, on their part, are still pissed that Turkey refused to help in the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The US has been helping the Kurds with finances, weapons and training, yet a Turkish invasion would close the border to economic activity and curtail military activity at the massive air base at Incirlik.
Could this mess get any more complicated? Oh you betcha.
Just like the US, Israel has been on good terms with both The Turks and the Kurds. Anxious to ally themselves with non muslim groups in the region they've been a presence in Kurdistan for decades, especially after the US invasion. The alliance between Turkey and Israel is an intricate one, more about that here.
Then there's the drug connection, where Turkey has maintained it's importance in the Afghanistan to Europe opium and heroin pipeline, which shadowy US groups desperately want to keep going:
"Turkey is a major transshipment point. Turkey is also a base of operations for international narcotics traffickers and associates trafficking in opium, morphine base, heroin, precursor chemicals and other drugs. The majority of these opiates originate in Afghanistan, and are ultimately trafficked to Western Europe. A smaller but still not insignificant amount of heroin is trafficked to the U.S. via Turkey."
Add to this the fact that Iran and Turkey are getting closer and cooporating more because they have common interest in fighting Kurdish seperatists.
Then there's also this oddball development:
"As tensions with Iraq increase over the reported shelling, Iraqi radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr -- who commands the Mahdi Army, a militia of tens of thousands of young, impoverished Shiites, who are accused of spearheading a sectarian conflict against Iraq's minority Sunnis -- said "we will not be silent in the face of this threat." Vowing to defend the people of "Kurdistan," Sadr called on the people of Turkey to stop their armed forces from carrying out cross-border shelling in Iraq, in a statement in Najaf."
That's right - radical Shiite muslims accused of sectarian violence against Sunnis are willing to protect Kurds who are mainly Sunni and aligned with Jews by fighting Turks who are mainly Sunni and also aligned with Jews and may have to also fight Iranians who are mainly fellow Shiites who are getting closer to the mainly Sunni Turks.
posted by nolocontendere at 6:12 AM
3 Comments:
The head spins.
I'm beginning to think that the US military may be content to act as mere overseers from their monster fortresses while supplying arms to any militant group that wants to use them on another, with the premise "let them kill each other off!"
After all, why waste US resources when it's so much easier and more profitable to pit the natives against each other and let them do all the dirty work. In the end, if it ever comes, there'll be less natives to worry about becuz they've killed each other off. We know Mossad likes to do it that way, chances are the US prefers it that way also.
My point is, the US may be arming "all sides" in the conflict, so long as they are fairly sure that those arms won't be used against them. So long as they don't have to venture into any red zones, they have almost nothing to worry about.
Nick Z.
A very cogent take on it Nick.
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