Oh Sh*t! Dept.: Turkey Invades Iraq?
from Reuters

Reports coming from Northern Iraq suggest that Turkish forces are currently in Iraq, pursuing rebels from the Kurdistan Worker's Party, or PKK. Turkey has denied this, saying it is a limited operation. Turkey has, however, a pretty bad track record about denying things that they have actually done such as the Armenian Genocide.

So what does this mean? Well, the Kurds, who control the northern part of Iraq, do not have a homeland, but if they did, it would be partially in Eastern Turkey. This would not go over well with the Turks, who kind of like the profits from the oil fields located on this land. That hasn't stopped the PKK from trying to get the land back, however, and the Turks are willing to create an international incident to stop them. Turkey has been placing troops at their border with Iraq since 2002, fearing that an atack may be imminent and despite being a US ally, declined in March 2003 to allow America to use their country as a forward operating base.

Although nothing has been officially confirmed, it would seem that a key member of "The Coaliton Of The Willing" is attacking on its own initiative the country that it helped to invade. Will the government of Iraq respond by attacking their Muslim neighbor? Will the Kurds take the initiative and secede from a country that they aren't terribly interested in being a part of in the hopes of creating a homeland for themselves? Will the US come down on the side of self-determination for the Kurds?

Stay tuned, folks. This is going to get funky.

posted by santo26 | 03:11 PM