US: WE GAVE TURKEY THE TARGETS

"The feeling on the street is that we must not just sit back idly while this is taking place. There is anger towards US forces. People feel they gave the green light to the Turks to bomb."
~ Nawzad Bolous, Hewlêr.

While US spokesmen in Ankara spent all yesterday denying any knowledge of Turkey's intentions to bomb Kurdish civilians in South Kurdistan, today we are told that the US is picking and choosing targets for Turkey:

U.S. military personnel have set up a center for sharing intelligence in Ankara, the Turkish capital, providing imagery and other immediate information gathered from U.S. aircraft and unmanned drones flying over the separatists' mountain redoubts, the officials said. A senior administration official said the goal of the U.S. program is to identify the movements and activities of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which is fighting to create an autonomous enclave in Turkey.

The United States is "essentially handing them their targets," one U.S. military official said. The Turkish military then decides whether to act on the information and notifies the United States, the official said.

"They said, 'We want to do something.' We said, 'Okay, it's your decision,' " the official said yesterday, although he denied that the United States had explicitly approved the strikes.

Well, the American military lies as well as the State Department. By opening the air space over Iraq, the US explicitly did approve of Turkish strikes against Kurdish civilians--the very targets that the US handed over to Turkey. Let's review:

The official U.S. line is that Washington did not approve Turkey's Sunday air strike on Kurdish targets in northern Iraq. But the U.S. does control the skies over Iraq and the Pentagon did open airspace over Iraq for at least three hours to Turkish warplanes. It was also informed of the raids beforehand, according to an American spokesperson in Ankara. "By opening its airspace, America gave its approval to the operation," Turkish General Yasar Buyukanit said.

Not satisfied with bombing civilians and destroying the property that gives them shelter and livelihood, the monsters who command both the American and Turkish military (and their corporate masters in the MIC) want to come up with a "comprehensive strategy" for genocide:

The intelligence cooperation comes as senior U.S. military and Pentagon officials have engaged in talks with their Turkish counterparts to produce a more comprehensive strategy for combating the PKK, according to a senior military official familiar with the discussions. In addition to providing targets, U.S. military officials said they have encouraged the Turks to employ nonmilitary measures against the PKK and to hold a dialogue with the Iraqi government.

None of these not-so-bright boys has considered taking up the points outlined by the KCK in its offer of a democratic solution because then the Americans couldn't turn a few blood bucks on military gifts to Turkey, such as the recent purchase of upgrade packages for Lockheed Martin's F-16s or the purchase of Lockheed's new albatross, the F-35. The F-35 purchase was the reason Lockheed Martin director, Joseph Ralston was appointed by the State Deparment as the "PKK coordinator" for Turkey last year.

There is only one way to solve the injustices that the Ankara regime has perpetrated against the Kurdish people, and it's not the military way:

After more than two decades of war against the rebels, Turkey’s generals and politicians concede that military measures alone cannot fix its festering Kurdish problem.

The corporate bloodsuckers behind American foreign policy are certainly not going to permit any solution that's going to undercut their bottom line--no matter who offers them--or rule of law, as William Arkin opines at the Washington Post's blog:

The rule of law took another hit this week. Not because of questionable interrogation tactics or warrantless wiretapping. But because one sovereign country, a member of the United Nations and NATO in good standing, bombed the territory of another sovereign country and member of the United Nations.

And, in large part because we are in the midst of an over-stated war against terrorism, where exaggerated threats distort our standards and encourage military solutions, the United States didn't protest; it assisted in the attack.

[ . . . ]

The historical twists and turns here, the overlapping Kurdish relationships inside Iraqi Kurdistan and across the border, the shifting Kurdish agenda - in regard to Iraq and Turkey and internally -- could be the stuff of an HBO suspense. I won't pretend to explain it here.

The Bush administration, of course, doesn't pretend either. Turkey and the U.S. reduce the problem to PKK terrorism - which, of course, then justifies a military response and preemption, even in the face of official protest in Baghdad.

What Turkey should do about the PKK, and what the U.S. and the international community should do to pressure the Iraqi Kurds to stop supporting terrorism, is difficult to prescribe.

Well, it's only "difficult to prescribe" when you are a citizen of a nation that has spent decades--long before the official, War on Terror, Inc.--contributing to the Turkish genocide of the Kurdish people. In other words, when you are guilty of having created the situation on the ground that forced Kurds to engage in this most recent legitimate armed resistance. The seven points have been offered twice in a little over a year, and they are the only means to end the conflict.

All these facts of life make Condoleezza "Chevron" Rice a big, fat liar:

“We have made clear to the Turkish Government that we continue to be concerned about anything that could lead to innocent civilian casualties or to the destabilisation of the north,” Dr Rice told a joint news conference in Baghdad with Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, who is a Kurd.

And you had better believe that whenever this little hobgoblin, Rice, comes to town, everyone rushes to roll out the red carpet for her so that no one will notice all the blood dripping from her hands. That's why Mesûd Barzanî refused to meet with the creature:

"Turkish troops committed an atrocious crime against innocent civilians and violated Iraq's sovereignty," said KRG President Massoud Barzani, whom Turkish generals accuse of harboring the PKK. Mr. Barzani, who refused to meet Rice on her visit to Iraq, said the US should fulfill its "moral and legal commitment to protect the country's sovereignty and defend the Iraqi people."

Okay, well, anyone who still believes the US is in Iraq to "protect the country's sovereignty and defend the Iraqi people" has not been paying attention.

It looks like they'll always have to roll out the red carpet for Hoshyar Zebarî in the future, too, and for the same reason as Rice:

The statement of the Kurdish-Iraqi minister Hoshiyar Zebari is an example of the Kurds selling out due to fear. According to Reuter, Zebari had stated "We fully understand Turkish legitimate security concerns over PKK terrorism across the border". PKK might not be the savior of Kurdistan, but it is embarrassing for any Kurds at this stage to call the fighters from other parts of Kurdistan terrorists. The patriot of any other nation would have said we have suffered enough and are willing to defend ourselves and our brothers and sister in other parts of Kurdistan against state terrorism. Zebari's statement regardless of diplomatic reasoning is disappointing and most likely forced by some of the corrupt NATO members.

To classify Zebarî's statement as "disappointing," is a vast understatement and is better described as absolute shamelessness, or as a first rate example of unblushing obsequiousness. Meanwhile, those Kurds who would call PKK fighters "terrorists" are worse than shameless; they are cowardly traitors.