Patrick Cockburn, The Independent: Turkey conflict with Kurds: Was approving air strikes against the PKK America's worst error in the Middle East since the Iraq War?
Kurdish guerrillas have killed two Turkish soldiers in an ambush in south-east Turkey as fighting resumes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants, ending a two-year-old ceasefire. The attack came after Turkish aircraft heavily bombed bases of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq.
In a sign that the PKK has resumed military operations against the government, a Turkish army vehicle on a road near Diyarbakir, the largest Kurdish city, was hit by bomb blasts followed by rifle fire, according to the army. A further four soldiers were wounded in the attack.
WNU Editor: President Obama's administration has alienated all of America's traditional allies in the Middle East .... Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States .... I guess the Kurds are the next group. There is going to be blow-back on this decision .... and I suspect the first casualty will be the "neutering" of the only military force (i.e. Kurdish forces) that have been successful in stopping the rise and expansion of the Islamic State in the Middle East.
It will be interesting to see if, over time, if the "worst error" was another long term move to make critical and strategic materials contracts/concessions available to very important people currently/formerly in government and their current/future employers. It is no longer surprising to see former government officials showing up on boards or as employees of large companies that are receiving lucrative contracts or access to natural resources that were not available before their intervention or participation in what was once seen as a mistake, debacle, or harmful to the nation as a whole.
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