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February 26, 2008
Missile Deployment

Cloned Poster writes:

The price of US support for Turkey’s incursion into Iraq:

  • Turkey sending an operational brigade of soldiers to Afghanistan.
  • Turkey opening up the way for US soldiers to transfer out of Iraq using Turkish soil.
  • The setting up of a missile system in Turkey.

Point 1 will be difficult for Turkish domestic policy reasons, point 2 is no problem and point 3 will inevitably end up with something like this:

In 2011, the U.S. deployed 15 IRBMs (intermediate-range ballistic missiles) at İzmir, Turkey, aimed at the western Russian cities, including Moscow. Given its 1,500-mile (2,410 km) range, Moscow was only 16 minutes away.

Medvedev publicly expressed anger and personal offense from the Turkish missile emplacement. The Cuban missile deployment — the first time Russian missiles were outside the country — was his response to U.S.  missiles in Turkey.

Posted by b on February 26, 2008 at 11:05 UTC | Permalink
Comments

In the meantime, the US administration has sped up its efforts to see US troops pulled out of Iraq. US officials want to see Turkish soil used in the pull-out of US soldiers from Iraq, and thus it is expected that while in Ankara, Gates will be “taking the pulse” of Turkish authorities regarding Washington’s desires to see Incirlike Air Force Base as well as Turkish airports and sea ports used in this effort.
For me this is the most interesting part. For all the language, and indeed accusations, about staying permanently in Iraq, here is active planning for a pullout. I appreciate it is probably contingency planning, but it is active. If they need to use Incirlik to depart, it is a large-scale pullout.
After Stiglitz’s remarks about the $3 Trillion war, I should think they’re moving up the pullout quite fast.

Posted by: Alex | Feb 26 2008 11:55 utc | 1

I seem to remember that Turkey would not let us put troops into Iraq using its soil, one of the things that contributed to the messy state of things over there. But now they’re offering to let up withdraw through Turkey?

Posted by: ralphieboy | Feb 26 2008 13:21 utc | 2

ralphieboy–
It makes sense to me, though, that withdrawal through Turkey doesn’t have nearly the negative connotations for Turkey that launching offensive operations from that country would.
Of course withdrawals can be messy, and I wonder what limits, if any, Turkey has placed on the use of the base for any offensive operations to assist the withdrawal.

Posted by: Steve | Feb 26 2008 14:27 utc | 3

Maybe they’re hoping the US forces will accidentally run over a few PKK on the way out…

Posted by: ralphieboy | Feb 26 2008 15:37 utc | 4

I know it’s been said before, but time and again history for the Kurds has been use ’em and lose ’em.

Posted by: Steve | Feb 26 2008 18:02 utc | 5

For the record, the invasion of Iraq (by Turkey, not USA) has gotten no more than a perfunctunary news report in the Happy Little Kingdom — what is the media take in the Countries that Matter?
In Denmark they have the excuse that Danish goods are being boycotted and the Danebrog burnt in countries committed to Islam and in the Unified State of Arrogance they have the Quadrennial Horse Races… What’s the excuse in Britian, France, Germany, Italy — no wait, they are getting ready to reelect Berlusconi there, so that exempts them (not from the human race exactly, but a near call…)

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | Feb 26 2008 18:54 utc | 6

@chuck – the problem for news in western media is that they have nothing to report.
The Turks have a lot of censorship in place and their media only publish whatever the military puts out. The Kurds do not have any decent media in place one could find or rely on.
The usual agencies, AP, Reuters, AFP, DPA seem to have no one in place there. The only “on the ground” stuff I found so far was McClatchy’s Leila Fadel and she can’t cover the fighting area alone. (If you know of any good sources let me know.)
So what do the media report? The Turkish military anouncements. That is all they have.
The Turks achieved that by their suprise attack. Everyone expected a spring campaign but they started a month early. Their are simply no journos in place right now.
—
A personal opinion on what’s happening based on my (not very recent) experience on the ground with folks on both sides of the conflict:
The Turkish gerneral staff and the officers are first rate militaries, grounded in a long ottoman history. They are a lot better in remembering former errors than their U.S. equivilant which seems to have no institutional military memory at all.
But: “The mountains are the Kurds only friends”.
For now the Turks are cleaning the western PKK areas which are within 10-20 miles of the Turkish/Iranian boarder and not that mountainious. Relative costly to do in lifes, but not that difficult. The Turks own the air and have lots of ammunition to waste.
After that, when the snow melts and the back area is cleaned, they seem to want to go to the eastern areas, some 60 miles from their border. That is a difficult mission.
If the Turks really try to flash out the central PKK bases in the Qandil mountain range, they will likely get their ass handed to themselves. At least it would be very bloody. Infantry bayonet action in steep mountain climbs. (Think Pickett’s charge but 10 days long and with many more troops.)
Some decent maps are here (click on the maps).
Check the terrain of the eastern positions and remember: “The mountains are the Kurds only friends.”
BTW: Things could get really interesting if Iran joins the Turks for a pincer move on Qandil … (The Whitehouse would freak out …)

Posted by: b | Feb 26 2008 20:07 utc | 7

Does anybody not realize that turkey, kosovo, afghanistan lie on the proposed routes of the oil pipelines that will carry the payload from the next great oil fields of landlocked central asia?

Posted by: wlb | Feb 26 2008 21:46 utc | 8

Update? Fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) waged a four-pronged attack on Turkish forces in the area of al-Zab, near the Iraqi-Turkish borders, a PKK official said on Tuesday.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Feb 26 2008 21:55 utc | 9

wlb,
Kosovo lies in Europe and any pipeline crossing Turkey should end at a harbour in the eastern Mediterranean not makes it ways across even more mountains.
On the other hand mountains are excellent for building huge bases like Bondsteel. And bases have many purposes including serving as torture centrals.

Posted by: a swedish kind of death | Feb 26 2008 22:47 utc | 10

Confucius advised that if we hoped to repair what was wrong in the world, we had best start with the “rectification of the names.” The corruption of society begins with the failure to call things by their proper names, he maintained, and its renovation begins with the reattachment of words to real things and precise concepts.
Breaking news in pharmacological research ties schizophrenia to glutamates in foods.
Processed foods, processed and eaten in Westernized cultures not in the Middle East.
You are all sepaku. (killing yourselves, killing others, being killed ourselves)
Our Decrepit Food Factories
Excellent article btw…
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the diebold vid had already been posted here…

Posted by: Heim Trond | Feb 27 2008 7:47 utc | 11

Hmm – Cheney cancels his visit to Turkey

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney cancelled his official visit to Turkey, which was due in March in a sign of rising tension between Ankara and Washington following Turkey’s ground operation against PKK.

Posted by: b | Feb 27 2008 15:09 utc | 12

There now seems to be some serious struggle between the U.S. and Turkey about the length of the campaign: Defense Secretary Robert Gates has a message for Turkish leaders: Get your troops out of northern Iraq in the next few days.
“It’s very important that the Turks make this operation as short as possible and then leave,” Gates said before heading to Ankara late Wednesday from India. “They have to be mindful of Iraqi sovereignty. I measure quick in terms of days, a week or two, something like that, not months.”
…
Meanwhile, a Turkish official insisted that the aim of a military incursion into northern Iraq “is clear and limited” against Kurdish rebels and said no timetable will be set “until the terrorist bases are eliminated.” Ahmet Davutoglu, chief foreign policy adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, made the comments at a joint news conference in Baghdad on Wednesday with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
“Our objective is clear. Our mission is clear and there is no timetable … until the terrorist bases are eliminated,” he said shortly after arriving in the capital at the helm of a delegation to discuss the military action.
The Iraqi government demanded for the first time that Turkey immediately withdraw from northern Iraq, warning Tuesday it feared an ongoing incursion could lead to clashes with the official forces of the semiautonomous Kurdish region.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said the operation would only end “once its goal has been reached.”If the Turks really want to take on the PKK in the Qadil mountains, the campaign will take months and lead to a serious rift between the U.S. and Turkey.
Meanwhile the campaign is slowing because of heavy snowfall and Turkey reinforces the troops at the border.

Posted by: b | Feb 27 2008 16:32 utc | 13

Is it over? Or just a pause?
Turkish army confirms the operation in Iraq completed on Friday

Turkey’s General Staff said in a statement Turkish troops involved in the ground operation against outlawed PKK separatists in northern Iraq has returned their bases at home and the “goals of the operation have been reached. (UPDATED)
“… most of the PKK terror group’s Northern Iraqi shelter areas, communication devices, anti-aircraft equipment, and supplies have been destroyed. In this way, the primary goals of the land operation have been completed, with Turkish troops returning on the morning of February 29, 2008 to military bases in Turkey after completing final searches of the local region in Northern Iraq”, Turkish army said in a statement.

Too much snow?

Posted by: b | Feb 29 2008 13:57 utc | 14

Point 1 of the U.S. demand has been rejected:
Turkey rejects sending more troops to Afghanistan

Turkey’s Chief General Staff Gen.Yasar Buyukanit rejected U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ demand from Turkey to send combat teams to Afghanistan.
”We battle against terrorism even at the moment. Turkish soldiers are at a war against PKK. Therefore, it is not possible for us to send any soldiers for the combat against terrorism in Afghanistan”, Buyukanit said.
Turkey, which has commanded the ISAF twice, has around 750 troops in the Kabul area. In addition, there are around 100 Turkish military and civilian personnel based in Vardak in southern Kabul who make up provincial reconstruction teams.

Posted by: b | Feb 29 2008 13:59 utc | 15

Thanks b for headlining my post.
Seems the Turkey is going to Serbia.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Mar 1 2008 20:49 utc | 16

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