Getting Into the Mix

Via Juan Cole, Turkey is planning a military invasion into northern Iraq to root out members of the Kurdish guerrilla organization PKK. That is, if US and Iraqi forces forces don't do something about it first.

Turkey is putting pressure on the US and Iraqi governments to reduce the presence of the Kurdish group, seen as a threat to Turkey's borders, or prepare for Turkish air strikes and a possible incursion.

In a fresh bout of sabre-rattling on Wednesday, the chief of staff, General Yasar Buyukanit, asked the government in Ankara to set the parameters for an incursion across the border. "Will we go to northern Iraq just to fight PKK rebels, or, for example, what will we do if we come under attack from local Iraqi Kurdish groups?" Gen Buyukanit said.

Sounds like your average, run-of-the-mill preemptive warfare if you ask me. I hear the US has no problem with that sort of strategy.

Meanwhile, to the south, CNN reports that an Iranian backed Hezbollah leader is in custody and is connected to the January 20 Karbala attack that killed 5 American troops. I don't have any problem with the details, but I do question the timing. Does anybody hear a little summer sabre-rattling?