Turkey: "Even Closer to the Brink"

In today's New York Times, there's an editorial slamming the Bush administration.

That's business as usual, of course.

The issue is Iraq and Turkey.

The news out of Iraq just keeps getting worse. Now Turkey is threatening to send troops across the border to wipe out Kurdish rebel bases, after guerrillas killed at least a dozen Turkish soldiers. This latest crisis should have come as no surprise. But it is one more widely predicted problem the Bush administration failed to plan for before its misguided invasion — and one more problem it urgently needs to deal with as part of a swift and orderly exit from Iraq.

Turkey’s anger is understandable. Guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., have been striking from bases in Iraqi Kurdistan with growing impunity and effect, using plastic explosives, mines and arms that are far too readily accessible in Iraq. The death toll for Turkish military forces is mounting.

Turkey’s civilian leaders are feeling strong popular pressure to lash back. The leadership needs to realize that the conflict is providing a dangerous opening for Turkey’s generals. The military is determined to regain the upper hand over Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom they detest for his party’s roots in Islamic politics.

Ankara needs to know that an invasion would not only add to Iraq’s chaos and raise the specter of a regional war, it would also do major damage to Turkey’s international standing and finish off its prospects for joining the European Union.

Following a personal appeal from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Mr. Erdogan’s government delayed retaliating and announced that all political means would be tried before launching a military operation into Iraq. But there is not a lot of time.

...Washington must now try to walk both sides back from this brink. It then should make a serious and sustained effort to broker a long-overdue political agreement between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan. There is much distrust on both sides. But there is also a lot to talk about. Iraqi Kurds want access routes to sell goods to Europe. Turkey needs a secure border with Iraq.

With so many other problems in Iraq, the Bush administration apparently thought it could ignore this one. It can’t. If it doesn’t now move quickly, Iraq’s disastrous civil war could spiral into an even bigger disaster — a regional war.

How can the situation in Turkey and rising tensions be discussed without mentioning one word about Nancy Pelosi's Armenian "genocide" bill?

The Times Editorial Board blasts the Bush administration for not doing enough to keep "Iraq’s disastrous civil war" from spiraling "into an even bigger disaster — a regional war."

It would seem appropriate for The Times to address the utterly irresponsible move by the Democrats to introduce a bill condemning the Armenian genocide from 1915 to 1917.

Doesn't Congress bear some responsibility for heightening tensions with Turkey and making negotiations more difficult?

The answer is YES.

Because of Pelosi's ill-timed resolution, Turkey angrily recalled its ambassador to the U.S. and cancelled visits by at least two of its officials to the U.S.

In spite of requests from the White House, the Dems pressed ahead. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were forced to lobby against the genocide resolution, trying desperately to prevent a vote in the House.

It was critical that diplomatic efforts succeed in calming the government of Turkey since the country is critical as a staging area for the movement of U.S. troops and for getting supplies to the troops on Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Times makes no mention of the Dems' role in creating problems with Turkey by their stubborn insistence that their "genocide" resolution go forward. It doesn't refer to the potentially disastrous consequences of the Dems' idiocy and how it could hamper the war effort and seriously impact our troops.

"Washington must now try to walk both sides back from this brink."

That walk was made much more difficult by the inexcusable actions of Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat Congress.