from the Paul Craig Roberts article of the same title in today's Counter Punch. An article so brillianit was hard to resist copying the whole thing.
<< . . .
<<Perhaps the clearest indication that the war in Iraq is no longer under American control is Turkey's announcement of plans to invade northern Iraq, the home of the Iraqi Kurds. As June 2007 came to an end, Turkey's Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul announced that if US or Iraqi forces did not eliminate the Kurdish guerrillas that were attacking Turkey, the Turkish Army would move into northern Iraq to deal with the situation.
<<Foreign Minister Gul was unequivocal: "The military plans have been worked out in the finest detail. The government knows these plans and agrees with them. If neither the Iraqi government nor the US occupying forces can do this [crush the guerrillas], we will take our own decision and implement it.">>
For a little clarity here, that's PKK Kurdish guerrillas he's talking about. Leftists who have been making a big name for themselves on both sides of the Iraq-Turkey border.
<<This ultimatum puts President Bush in an impossible situation. Neither the Iraqi government nor the US military have the means to deal with Kurdish guerrillas in their mountain strongholds. The US military cannot even occupy Baghdad. The Iraqi government exists in name only and can be found only in its offices located inside the fortified and US-protected Green Zone in Baghdad. Moreover, to the extent that the in-name-only Iraqi government has any support, it comes from the Kurds in northern Iraq.
<<The rest of Iraq is controlled by Sunni insurgents and Shi'ite militias. Even Basra in the south has been abandoned to the Shi'ite militias by Bush's British ally.
<<The over-stretched American Empire hasn't any troops to send to northern Iraq. NATO, whose charter was to defend Western Europe from Soviet invasion should have been disbanded two decades ago. Today NATO functions as an auxiliary US force and has been sent to Afghanistan, where it is being defeated like the British and Russians before it.>>
Ahh, well, not to worry. The Anbar Miracle will save them!
<<In the midst of this unmanageable chaos, vice president Cheney, Bush's former UN ambassador John Bolton and large numbers of Christian and Jewish Zionists are demanding that the US attack Iran, and Syria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon.>>
The death-knell of AmeriKKKan fascism. Please God, let it start now!
<<The unintended consequences of the "cakewalk war" are already far outside the Bush administration's ability to manage and will plague future governments for many years. For the administration to initiate new acts of aggression in the MIddle East would go beyond recklessness to insanity.>>
A line that was crossed four years ago, IMHO. Of course, in real life the Americans won't do a God-damn thing to curb the PKK (they just
can't!) but the Turks won't dare to invade. Just as well. Everyone kinda likes the Kurds and the bottom line is, they really oughtta have their own state anyway.
