Bush offers to bomb Kurds

[Guest trex]

Bush offers to bomb Kurds

October 24, 2007

THE Bush Administration is considering air strikes, including cruise missiles, against the Kurdish rebel group PKK in northern Iraq. The move would be an attempt to stave off a Turkish invasion of that country to fight the rebels.

President George Bush spoke with Turkish President Abdullah Gul by phone yesterday in an effort to ease the crisis.

According to an official familiar with the conversation, Mr Bush assured the Turkish President that the US was seriously looking into options beyond diplomacy to stop the attacks coming from Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. "It's not 'Kumbaya' time any more - just talking about trilateral talks is not going to be enough," the official said.

"Something has to be done."

While the use of US soldiers on the ground to root out the PKK would be the last resort, the US would be willing to launch air strikes on PKK targets, the official said, and has discussed the use of cruise missiles. But air strikes using manned aircraft may be an easier option because the US controls the air space over Iraq.

PKK separatists, operating from northern Iraq, killed a dozen Turkish soldiers in weekend fighting. The PKK said it also captured eight soldiers, and a news agency with close links to the rebels published what it said were photographs of the captives today. Turkey had denied soldiers had been captured but acknowledged eight were missing.

The attack's sophistication and scope surprised not only the Turks but also the US and its Iraqi allies.

With feelings running high in Turkey, and anti-PKK protests in several towns, the broadcasting watchdog banned news reports on the deaths of the 12 soldiers.

Turkey has deployed as many as 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, F-16 fighter jets and helicopter gunships along its border in preparation for a possible attack on rebel bases.

"If expected developments do not take place in the next few days, we will have to take care of our own situation," Erdogan said in Oxford, England, yesterday.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Britain's visiting foreign secretary, David Miliband, said they had proposed a meeting in Istanbul next month of officials from the United States, Turkey and Iraq to discuss how to stop PKK attacks.

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Why not, if it worked for Saddam it can work for US

[bush_cheney2004]

...Why not, if it worked for Saddam it can work for US

Agreed....it worked for Canada too (Kosovo - 1999).

[GostHacked]

Why does this only come in after Turkey decided to start attacking the PKK 'Rebels'?

[Higgly]

More evidence that Bush has absolutely no understanding of the history of Iraq, a country that was slapped together by the British without any thought as to whether the ethnic groups therein would be able to get along. This Kurdistan thing has been going on for centuries and still morons like Bush just don't get it.

Imagine if you will a foreign occupying force going into the UK in the 14th century and declaring that England, Ireland and Scotland would all be one nation. It just ain't gonna happen.

[Fortunata]

Doesn't Bush have to look like he's willing to do something to support Turkey? USA needs Turkey now more than Turkey needs USA and with all that Armenian genocide talk that's going on there has to be sucking up on some level.

[Higgly]

Doesn't Bush have to look like he's willing to do something to support Turkey? USA needs Turkey now more than Turkey needs USA and with all that Armenian genocide talk that's going on there has to be sucking up on some level.

This is the point. Turkey is already lost. Congress voted on the Armenian issue. I have no doubt that Bush is trying to get past that, but it's too damned late. This is yet another tipping point that Bush just does not get.

Edited October 24, 2007 by Higgly

[kuzadd]

An interesting turn of events, after the Bush admin. paraded the Kurds around, prior to the attack ,(as if the Bush admin. cared) now he will bomb them.

I think Turkey has already done some bombing???

or attacking?

on there own, in response to Kurdish incursions.

[Topaz]

Doesn't Bush have to look like he's willing to do something to support Turkey? USA needs Turkey now more than Turkey needs USA and with all that Armenian genocide talk that's going on there has to be sucking up on some level.

About a years ago, I read a Turkish newspaper, on the net, saying that the head of CIA had gone over and asked Turkey if they would be there for the US, when they went into Iran? The paper never said if Turkey would or wouldn't.

[Higgly]

About a years ago, I read a Turkish newspaper, on the net, saying that the head of CIA had gone over and asked Turkey if they would be there for the US, when they went into Iran? The paper never said if Turkey would or wouldn't.

I'd like to see a cite for that, because I think it might be useful in the future.

Turkey was not willing to allow bombing raids on Iraq from the US base inside it territory. I'd be surprised if they gave the big OK to Iran. Turkey has to live in the region, not like Bush and Cheney who feel free to come and shit all over everybody else's nest whenever it suits them.

[Guest trex]

An interesting turn of events, after the Bush admin. paraded the Kurds around, prior to the attack ,(as if the Bush admin. cared) now he will bomb them.

I think Turkey has already done some bombing???

or attacking?

on there own, in response to Kurdish incursions.

One day you're there, next day you're gone. Bush would make a fine cesar.

[buffycat]

This whole Kurdish thing is very sticky. Israel has been training the Kurds, yet Israel also needs to maintain a good relationship with Turkey - one of the only Muslim countries she actually gets along with currently.

Odd though how this is never mentioned.

The Kurds better be more careful - they are about to be sacrificed by all sides involved it seems.

[Guest trex]

This whole Kurdish thing is very sticky.

The Kurds better be more careful - they are about to be sacrificed by all sides involved it seems.

Well then hopefully the Kurds bathe regularly.

What the Kurds want is Kurdistan. They wanted it under Saddam too and he had to quell their uprisings, in his own unique idiom... and today we have Bush-ism. Lets meet the new boss... the same as the old boss...

As every good dicktator knows the easy answer, is to just kill the bastards. For which similar tactic, Saddam was of course executed I might add...

[ScottSA]

More evidence that Bush has absolutely no understanding of the history of Iraq, a country that was slapped together by the British without any thought as to whether the ethnic groups therein would be able to get along. This Kurdistan thing has been going on for centuries and still morons like Bush just don't get it.

Imagine if you will a foreign occupying force going into the UK in the 14th century and declaring that England, Ireland and Scotland would all be one nation. It just ain't gonna happen.

I hate to mention this, but that's gotta be one of the silliest analogies I've ever read, not only since the "UK" today consists of exactly those three, but also because a few years prior to British partition, Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire. "Not gonna happen?" It did for a few centuries, since...why, come to think of it, there's that pesky 14th century popping up again! Before that it changed hands and government since...well, since the dawn of civilization, literally. So I don't think the evil colonialists started anything particularly novel, and I'm damned sure that Bush didn't. I suppose, though, that he should have gone in and enslaved entire cities and slaughtered the menfolk like the Muslims did a few centuries before...that seems to leave a more lasting impression on conquered lands than nicey nice and the occasional bumpile.

[Guest coot]

Why do you call the colonialists evil?

[ScottSA]

Why do you call the colonialists evil?

Don't worry about it.

[Higgly]

I hate to mention this, but that's gotta be one of the silliest analogies I've ever read, not only since the "UK" today consists of exactly those three, but also because a few years prior to British partition, Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire. "Not gonna happen?" It did for a few centuries, since...why, come to think of it, there's that pesky 14th century popping up again! Before that it changed hands and government since...well, since the dawn of civilization, literally. So I don't think the evil colonialists started anything particularly novel, and I'm damned sure that Bush didn't. I suppose, though, that he should have gone in and enslaved entire cities and slaughtered the menfolk like the Muslims did a few centuries before...that seems to leave a more lasting impression on conquered lands than nicey nice and the occasional bumpile.

Sure it consists of those three. And how many centuries of war did it take? They teach that in high school history. As for Iraq being part of the Ottoman empire, that is a different situation, isn't it? You have a region that was ruled by a foreign military power as opposed to one that is supposed to govern itself.

[Rue]

More evidence that Bush has absolutely no understanding of the history of Iraq, a country that was slapped together by the British without any thought as to whether the ethnic groups therein would be able to get along. This Kurdistan thing has been going on for centuries and still morons like Bush just don't get it.

Imagine if you will a foreign occupying force going into the UK in the 14th century and declaring that England, Ireland and Scotland would all be one nation. It just ain't gonna happen.

Exactly. Now from what I can understand though the natural Kurd border transgresses into Turkey and I doubt either Turkey or Iraq are intersted in allowing a Kurdish nation to be carved from either.

Lets face it Iraq is 3 parts, l kurd, 1 shiite, both with oil, and the middle Sunni with nothing in it. The Shiite component wants to join Iran, the Kurds want their own country and the middle aint worth spit.

On it goes. More innocent civilians will die. Fuck I hate borders.

Edited October 26, 2007 by Rue