Defense Secretary Gates' revealing response on "possibility of a Turkish invasion in northern Iraq"

[ProSense]

From TPM Muckraker (emphasis added):

<...>

Regardless, any move by the Turks into Iraqi Kurdistan severely complicates the U.S.'s position: a NATO ally is fighting the U.S.'s best friends in Iraq. On Sunday, Defense Secretary Gates was asked about a possible Turkish action against the Kurds:

Q Mr. Secretary, there have been growing rumblings over the last couple of days about the possibility of a Turkish invasion in northern Iraq to go after the PKK. I'm wondering whether you see that as a real possibility, and if this were to happen, what would it mean to the overall effort to stabilize Iraq and to keep it intact?

SEC. GATES: Well, I think, first of all, the Turks have a genuine concern with Kurdish terrorism that takes place in Turkish -- on Turkish soil, and so it's -- one can understand their frustration and unhappiness over this. Several hundred Turks lose their lives each year, and we have been working with the Turks to try and help them get control of this problem on Turkish soil.

I think our view would be that if -- we would prefer that we continue to work this problem with them to try to safeguard Turkey and would hope that there would not be a unilateral military action across the border into Iraq.

Again, it's not clear what exactly is going on in northern Iraq, but any Turkish action after Gates's statement surely represents as a decision to flout the United States.

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Summary: There is a real and imminent threat breaching Turkey's border (unlike the phony threat Bush invented to sell the Iraq war), but Gates would hope the Turks refrain from unilateral military action (because only the U.S. is allowed to invade countries when the threat is real, and under the Bush/Cheney doctrine when the threat is invented). Policy for lunatics!

[ProSense]

1. It would be a disaster, but

talk about hypocrisy!

[rjones2818]

2. They've gone in although not as a full blown invasion.

Turkish Officials Say Troops Enter Iraq

Another unintended consequence.

[ProSense]

3. Thanks for the link. Welcome rjones2818. n/t

[rjones2818]

4. Many thanks!

[newyawker99]

6. Hi rjones2818!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[gulfcoastliberal]

5. This was inevitable. When the Kurds try to grab OIL RICH Kirkuk and the Kurdish areas of Turkey

and assimilate them into an officially sovereign Kurdistan, that's when the full scale invasion happens.

[Blackhatjack]

7. Turkey would not step one foot over the line unless one of two things happens first...

Either they have extracted the 'tacit approval' of the United States in exchange for future cooperation with the US in some yet to be revealed military action;

OR Turkey knows that events are about to happen soon that will create a 'vacuum' which the United States cannot fill in regard to northern Iraq under Kurdish control, and they will act preemptively to fill that vacuum whether the United States agrees or not.