Iraq

I just read that the PKK would be ready for a conditionnal cease fire. No wonder since urkey is getting serious and that the Iraqi gov has demanded that the Pkk leaves Iraq

 

Something tells me that its too late

 

Northern Iraq was about the only so called secure area of the country...
and latest news: the Poles have changed their leader and they will also retreat from Iraq a.s.a.p.

 

Now that is latest news Skip!! I havent heard that yet!!!

 

It's true that the Law and Justice party lost the elections, the Prime Kaczynski resigned.

The liberal Civic Platform who won, had in its program a fast retirement from Iraq.

Will they fullfill this electoral promise and when is yet to be checked.

Anyway, it was about time Poland got rid of the 2 bigot twins !

 

Yes Slon I agree, they come and kill our soldiers than offer a cease fire, were they thinking in the first place?

 

Hey if the US is in there fighting the war on terror, why not Turkey??

 

I heard some Turks were taken pow by the PKk, any info about that?

 

8 of them I believe right?

 

Yes I heard that is true. I hope they all come back to home to their families safely.

 

Kerem I am hopeful as well but sadly this is typical of the past, when Palestinian/Israel at each others throats constantly and taking prisioners and then making surrender demands all in their best interests.

hopeful this will be at an end on the northern border of Iraq very soon before a much larger force of some capacity comes in and adds to the overall mess of things...............uh well there is some very serious scuttle butt in the hierarchy about going in to Iran. Idiots !

 

I will cross my finger for the eight hostages.

 

Surely if they are executed, Turkey will go in?

 

I would understand the Turks if they wanted to go in and he Iraqi government has recently claimed that it would expel pkk bases from its territory.

 

Well, now that S. Hussein's regime is down, Turkey and Iran are the PKK worst enemies.

The PKK's Iranian branch is operating against the Iran army, from bases located at the northern Iraq border, and in turn, Iranian forces are bombing Kurd zones located in northern Irak.

USA having used Kurds to fight Saddam, and maybe using Kurds in the present or the future to weaken Iran, has now its bottom between two chairs like we say here.

If Irak shows unable to enforce a minimal cohesion and order within its frontiers, to the point neighbour countries entrer Irak for military operations against Kurds (hopefuly aimed at PKK members only, but you never know...), it makes it even harder not to split between minorities who would feel they'd better defend themselves than rely on Irak as a country.

 

Adequately said. When it comes to war, there is not a crystal ball in existence that can predict the outcome.
One thing for sure, the US succeeded in its invasion of Iraq. The Iraqi army had no chance at all. No question about that. For what it's worth, I think it would have been better if Bush had focused first on the mission in Afghanistan, rather than invading Iraq. Since the US is already in Iraq, people should be thinking of the follow through, instead of bickering.

I may not like many of Bush's policies but I give him credit for taking a stand. As I understand democracy, (putting it simply) people advocate different views and the elected leader (the president) decides which action to take.

On a personal note, I still feel deeply embarassed for the rather cowardly pull out of Philippine troops in Iraq. I wrote against it when that happened.
I don't believe a country's government should be blackmailed into giving in to a hostage taker's demand. Whether the Filipino soldiers should be there or not is besides the point.

I also see similarities in the US situation in Iraq and the US occupation of the Philippine Islands after the US-Spanish War.

If the present US administration only has the gumption to adopt most of the policies and techniques it used in the Philippines nearly a century ago, Iraq would be pacified within six to seven years. Of course, the US back then didn't have to worry about the foreign press and got away with burning down whole towns, forced hamleting, water torture, razing farms, etc. One of the popular sayings justifying this was "We have to Christianize the Catholics!"

The basic tactic was to destroy the community and its resources, move the people to a secured location, put the kids into US controlled schools, with the US and its helpers being the only source of jobs, money, food and water for the time being.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the US. All that I mentioned is history. I've been to the US several times and love the place and the people. It's just that it's disappointing that Bush just wouldn't admit he made critical mistakes. A leader should take responsibility and take responsibility for his actions.

 

I have a more radical view on fighting terrorism......


Which is why I strongly supported Putin's handling of Chechnya

 

seems that Turkey is pounding the Kurds from the air at the moment........go to it !!

 

Are the Turks bombing northern Iraq ? Wow, didn't hear that yet.

 

25th October 07' - 3,837 Deaths