Turkey - No "Timetable" for Pull Out of Northern Iraq (Israeli, military)

[irwin]

Well, looks like the chicken's have come home to roost.
Turkey says no timetable for Iraq pullout - Yahoo! News (broken link)

Blowback people.

If the current administration had the ability to ascertain the long term strategic implications of this disaster in Iraq, maybe we wouldn't be in the mess we are in right now. Alas...

[chielgirl]

Didn't the US ask Turkey to go into Iraq initially?
We have so little foresight.

[TnHilltopper]

I'm not sure if the US ever asked Turkey to intervene but I am aware that this has been some cause for concern since the first Gulf War. There have long been great tensions between the Kurds and the Turks, and if I recall, it was even brought up before the Sunni-Shiite concerns because Turkey is one of our allies in the region.

I have this feeling that this issue with Turkey and the PKK and the Kurds in Northern Iraq in general may just end up being a far more difficult situation than the problems that lay in the south. Also interesting to see how this will end up playing out with the Israeli's since they have started work on a oil pipeline from the Tikrit area through Jordan and into Israel. Israel and Turkey have had rather close relations and this issue of Turkey military forces entering into Northern Iraq may be a source of much wider tensions than we see on the face.

If nothing else, one thing is sure, Iraq is an utter mess.

[jufrbo]

Hey, if can convince Turkey to move further South, and occupy the whole nation, we could high tail it out of Iraq. Not a bad idea.