"It is not a major offensive" -- yet
Here we go…Thousands of Turkish troops have swept into northern Iraq, putting Team Bush in a major quandary. From the Associated Press:
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 told The Associated Press.
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 AP 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 U.S. military said it could not confirm the reports but was "very concerned."
That would be a mild understatement. Side with a NATO ally, or side with the only faction in Iraq that's been generally pro-Washington in recent years.
This is not the big blow-up. But it's a bad omen. Real bad.
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