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February 22nd, 2008 at 5:39 am

Turkey Launches Offensive Into Iraq

in: Global War on Terrorism

A neglected situation in Northern Iraq has escalated into an invasion by the neighboring nation of Turkey. Kurdish rebels hiding in Iraq has been conducting attacks in Turkey prompting the Turkish military to pursue them into Iraq.

From FoxNews.com:

Turkish troops have launched a ground incursion across the border into Iraq in pursuit of separatist Kurdish rebels, the military said Friday — a move that dramatically escalates Turkey’s conflict with the militants.

It is the first confirmed ground operation by the Turkish military into Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, and it raised concerns that it could trigger a wider conflict with the U.S.-backed Iraqi Kurds.

The ground operation started after Turkish warplanes and artillery bombed suspected rebel targets on Thursday, the military said on its Web site. The ground incursion was backed by the Air Force, the statement said.

Turkey has conducted air raids against the PKK guerrillas in northern Iraq since December, with the help of U.S. intelligence, and it has periodically carried out so-called “hot pursuits” in which small units sometimes spend only a few hours inside Iraq.

The announcement of a cross-border, ground incursion of a type that Turkey carried out before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a major development in the conflict.

“The Turkish Armed Forces, which values Iraq’s territorial integrity and its stability, will return as soon as planned goals are achieved,” the military said. “The executed operation will prevent the region from being a permanent and safe base for the terrorists and will contribute to Iraq’s stability and internal peace.”

The major question is, can we morally condemn the incursion when we ourselves have done so in the past? General Pershing led an incursion into Mexico to pursue Mexican bandits raiding us homes and towns in the American Southwest in 1916-1917. Pershing was pursuing Poncho Villa and although it failed, there is precedent for protecting national sovereignty in our past.

The PKK is engaging in terrorist activities and unless the Kurdish authorities in Northern Iraq quells the violence, the United States may have to back Turkey in this matter.

President Bush said we’d pursue terrorism wherever it shows itself and PKK are showing themselves. But for now, i say we stay out of it other than to put pressure on the Kurds in the north to assist the Turks in quelling the cross-border violence. But only if the Turks are protecting themselves. Should they expand their operation, we should eliminate that threat as well.

That would be ironic. Bombing Turkish troops with airplanes launched from Turkey.

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