Iraq - From Bad to Worse

Sources: Thousands of Turkish troops enter Iraq

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Several thousand Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq early Wednesday to chase Kurdish guerrillas who operate from bases there, Turkish security officials said.

Two senior security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the raid was limited in scope and that it did not constitute the kind of large incursion that Turkish leaders have been discussing in recent weeks.

"It is not a major offensive and the number of troops is not in the tens of thousands," one of the officials told The Associated Press by telephone. The official is based in southeast Turkey, where the military has been battling separatist Kurdish rebels since they took up arms in 1984.

The officials did not say where the Turkish force was operating in northern Iraq, nor did he say how long they would be there.

This is not very surprising, Turkey has been strengthening the border for the past 3 months.

What is clear though is that Turkey won't stand for an independent Kurdish state, not if it helps the PKK in their own borders, or any neighboring countries with a sizable Kurdish population.

So lets tally up the Bush Junta's 'successes' shall we!

Lebanon is currently tense, currently an uneasy pause between the various sectarian factions

The Gaza Strip is on the verge or already in a civil war

Iraq is currently full of sectarian violence as well, with an added Turkish incursion into the northern Kurdish part.

I hope the Bush Junta and the Neocon fuckeheads feel proud, setting an entire region alight as a result of their imperial ambition.

An article well worth reading - NATO’S ISLAMISTS

Hegemony and Americanization in Turkey

by Cihan Tuğal - h/t Nur al-Cubicle

Lebanon

New US military aid for Lebanon

US military planes have delivered more equipment to the Lebanese army, as its stand-off with Islamic militants at a Palestinian refugee camp continued.

Palestinian PM Fouad Siniora again called on Sunni militants inside the camp to surrender or face army action.

He was speaking after the leader of Shia militant group Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, said Lebanon should not be part of a US war on al-Qaeda.

The stand-off at the Nahr al-Bared camp near Tripoli is now in its seventh day.

Why is handing out more weapons to a violent conflict even being considered? I mean handing out military supplies is just going to fuel the conflict, shouldn't the goal be trying to like reduce it!

The power of the arms trade and the millions made off it, is very repugnant.