Turkey Authorizes Military Operation in Iraq

As this Washington Post story indicates (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/17/AR2007101700967.html?hpid=topnews), it appears that the mess in Iraq may be about to get bigger. Great work Chimperator!! Let's have the entire country get dismembered. Some of what is happening should be of no surprise given the history of Iraq and its creation - facts that the Chimperator and Cheney apparently never thought to check out. But then again, since the Chimperator thinks he is on a crusade and is appointed by God, I surmise he did not think it necessary. The guy is an idiot. Here are some highlights:

ANKARA, Turkey, Oct. 17 -- The Turkish parliament Wednesday authorized cross-border military operations into northern Iraq to combat Kurdish separatist rebels as world leaders implored Turkey to delay any action. In the hours before the parliament voted by a gaping margin of 507 to 19 to give Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan permission to launch strikes any time over the next year, Iraqi and NATO officials made a flurry of cautionary, last-minute telephone calls to the country's top leaders.

The vote came just moments after President Bush in a White House press conference urged Turkey to continue talking to Iraq officials about the situation and to not move troops against the rebels. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called Turkish President Abdullah Gul and urged Turkey to "exercise the greatest possible restraint, particularly in this time of great tension," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said at a news briefing in Brussels.

But Turkish parliamentary leaders -- some delivering impassioned speeches, others reading dryly from prepared texts during Wednesday's two-and-a-half-hour debate -- criticized Iraq and the United States for refusing to take action against the rebel organization, despite years of pleas from Turkish authorities. They accused the northern Iraq Kurdish government of giving the PKK leaders and fighters free rein to run their headquarters and training camps and plot attacks on Turkey across the border. They also blamed the United States, saying it failed to live up to promises made in 2003 that they would help counter the PKK threat from inside Iraq.

U.S. and Iraqi officials fear a Turkish invasion into Iraq could lead to even more chaos in Iraq and could open the door to other neighboring countries, including Iran and Syria, to launch attacks against other Kurdish groups along their borders with Iraq. Both Iran and Turkey have been firing artillery shells into northern Iraq for the past several weeks. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who met with Turkish leaders during a state visit here Wednesday, said Turkey has a legitimate right to launch a cross-border offensive.

One has to ask why Turkey ever thought Bush would do what he said. His grasp on the truth and reality are none existent. The whole lead up to invading Iraq was based on lies.