Turkey signifies they will send in ground troops

[Davros]

This seems to be in direct contravention of what the US has requested. They (the US) are working with the Kurds on Northern Iraq. Thay have marine teams of the ground and are conducting bombing raids on Mosel and Kirkuk. They have notified the Turks that they cannot promise proper "friend or foe" identification, and that those troops will be at risk of "friendly" fire. We all know that the Turks and the Kurds hate each other with a passion. This has the potential to get real ugly real soon .

I see on one of the channels that they are proposing to airlift a brigade (3-5000) additional coalition troops into the area today - presumably aimed as much at forestalling Turkey as it is at liberating Mozel, the unofficial Kurdish capital.

I see two channels now switching a focus to this and asking did the US's strategic planning completely misread expected Turkisk responses on this war?

[Ronn_Bman]

I've seen and heard the same. The Turks say they want to go into Iraq to stem the tide of refuges. Of course the Turks have had thousands of troops in Northern Iraq for years, but increased numbers are worrisome to the coalition for any number of reasons. The US told Turkey their troops moving into Iraq would be expected to act within the coalition, but the Turks seem to disagree.

Did you know that Iraq's northern oil fields used to belong to Turkey prior to WWI? I didn't.

The implications of this worry me more than Saddam's conventional forces do.

[ 03-21-2003, 08:16 PM: Message edited by: Ronn_Bman ]

[Davros]

Originally posted by Ronn_Bman: The implications of this worry me more than Saddam's conventional forces do.

Me too!!!!!!!!!

[Mordenheim]

They want their cake and eat it too. They were offered a stupid amount of money and some chance to a little pice of the pie. Instead they chose a course and are now trying to get the piece of the pie with it.

I don't think it is going to fly. Besides I like the idea of keeping the resources for the Iraq people

[Memnoch]

This is about local politics and leverage. Turkey know they have something that the US wants (support and airspace - from an Islamic country), and they want something that only the US can give them (tacit approval sending their troops into Nthn Iraq to sort out their Kurdish problem). The US may yell and holler for appearance purposes, but I think the Turks may get away with a slap on the wrist.

[Reeka]

I just heard Rumsfeld say that it would be "most unhelpful" for Turkey to send troops into northern Iraq. I took "most unhelpful" to be a diplomatic way of saying "stay the hell out of Iraw," or perhaps I misunderstood Mr. Rumsfeld's meaning.

[Memnoch]

Originally posted by Reeka: I just heard Rumsfeld say that it would be "most unhelpful" for Turkey to send troops into northern Iraq. I took "most unhelpful" to be a diplomatic way of saying "stay the hell out of Iraw," or perhaps I misunderstood Mr. Rumsfeld's meaning.

I'm also guessing that to the Turks it means this: "we don't want you there, but unfortunately we can't do anything about it - your issue is the lesser of two evils right now so we'll worry about you later".

[Felix The Assassin]

Ok, the cat is out of the bag, so I can talk.

You folks are real close.

We wanted our boys in Turkey, to "provide border, and local security" along the border. We could launch our 2nd offensive from there. Yada, Yada.

We wanted to be in Turkey to PREVENT exactly was is happening in N. Iraq. We have already warned them Friend or Foe Id is undistinguishable, and they may receive friendly fire if they are in the hot areas. However, it seems they have seen the plan for N. Iraq without support from Turkey, and either want to face US troops, or they want to deal their blow on the Kurds now. But if you have any kind of board / PC based war gamming experience, you can clearly see what is the next immediate objective, and the troops to be used for it are there.

[Davros]

Originally posted by Reeka: I just heard Rumsfeld say that it would be "most unhelpful" for Turkey to send troops into northern Iraq. I took "most unhelpful" to be a diplomatic way of saying "stay the hell out of Iraw," or perhaps I misunderstood Mr. Rumsfeld's meaning.

I am tempted to suggest that you must have misheard this Reeka, because what you were quoting just doesn't seem to be consistent with the tactful style of "The Don" [img]smile.gif[/img] . Maybe the Iraqii's have planted a double to confuse us. .

Felix - could you expand on some of those hints you are dropping - do you have some insider info source?

[Felix The Assassin]

Originally posted by Davros: Felix - could you expand on some of those hints you are dropping - do you have some insider info source?

Just put it all together. Your first post provides a big hint. What you have replied back on Reeka, is just the opposite.

We wanted to be in Turkey, so they would be less aggressive towards wanting to stage against the Kurds. We would have also used that as the N. approach. Now we must do it a different way, with different means.

Besides being a veteran of DS, and a 20 yr man, No.