This map, published in today’s New York Times, says more than any article about why tensions are so high about the Turkish-Iraqi border. Perhaps because it is also the Syria-Iraq-Turkey border and the Iran-Iraq-Turkey border…

The only thing missing is an overlay of where some of Iraq’s oil and oil pipelines are –north of Mosul, roughly east of Mt. Cudi and west of the Matina and Gara lines.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is perfectly comfortable in bases on the Iraqi side.  From them, they easily cross into Turkey to ambush Turkish soldiers, provide Turkish-based cadres with weapons and explosives and tend to their wounded. For Turkey, understandably, the situation is intolerable — but for the world, Turkey needs to keep its troops on the Turkish side of the border and not invade, possibly triggering a much wider war.

While still in Turkey as a Fulbright lecturer, I remember seeing “Valley of the Wolves,” based on an incident that took place in July of 2003. Turkish special forces in Sulaymaniyah, in northern Iraq, were detained by US forces and led out of their headquarters at gunpoint, with hoods over their heads. Turkey took the incident as national humiliation. In the movie, the incident becomes a catharsis, with Turkish special forces single-handedly (and in badly tailored suits) defending an Iraqi family and vanquished untold dozens of American soldiers.

The movie was both the most expensive ever made in Turkey and the most popular.

The Suleymaniya incident, however, was nothing compared with what is happening now in Turkey. A recent poll found that Turkey was among the most anti-American countries in the world. Turks opposed the Iraq invasion and now see that the invasion — and the American inability to leash the PKK — is directly harming them.

The PKK use terror and have very limited support, even among the Kurds. In this case, the use of force, however difficult and uncertain, may be the “right” human rights position, to avert a far greater disaster…
Hiding in Rugged Terrain