Get ready for a regional war?

It looks like Bush administration diplomacy fails again. The New York Times recently published a report stating that Turkish aircraft (whether it was helicopters or planes has been disputed) attacked the “abandoned” village of Zakhu, which is in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Turks are saying planes carried out the attack while the Iraqi government claims it was helicopters. A spokesman for the Kurdish regional government denied it was an attack, but said that Turkish planes “dropped flares” in the mountains near Zakhu.

An anonymous PKK member did corroborate that an attack was carried out. Since the PKK are the ones actually hulled up in the mountains I’m more likely to believe them than the Kurdish regional government, which has to take a more conciliatory diplomatic line (although the lines where the PKK ends and the Kurdish government begins is quite blurry).

Will Bush launch a Kurdish front in Iraq?

An Australian paper, the Herald Sun, unfortunately had to release this chilling piece yesterday. President Bush is apparently considering the possibility of lobbing a few cruise missiles at the Kurdish PKK, who are holed up in Iraq’s northern mountainous region, if it looks like the only thing that will stave off a Turkish border crossing. This is what I call a bad idea.

A double standard on “terrorists” in Kurdistan

Richard Oppel’s extraordinary piece on Kurdish guerrillas made the front page of the New York Times today. His article gives us a look at the PJAK (“Party for Free Life in Kurdistan”) , a guerrilla movement that lives in the mountains of northern Iraq and launches cross-border attacks against the Iranian military (which an emphasis on targeting the Revolutionary Guard) to disrupt their operations in the area. He notes that their counterparts in Turkey, the PKK (Kurdistan Worker’s Party) is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and the United States. Although Iran considers the PJAK a terrorist organization, the United States does not, and may even be organizing and assisting the group against Iran.

Turkey, Tibet, Mandaeans, and American Guilt

John McQuaid over at Huffington Post is spot on with his analysis of the Turkey/Armenia vote in Congress and the President/Dalai Lama visit. It’s about conscience and guilt. The Congress/President have to project any image of American morality to the American people they can find. Apparently the only strategy they have left is to point out the crimes of other countries, even if it means destroying diplomatic relations with one (Turkey) and seriously pissing off another (China). The timing is rather mind-boggling but there is a logic to it. Marathon post after the jump.