bryant

Northern Iraq has been fairly peaceful, despite pre-war worries about Turkey’s reaction to Kurdish freedom. There’s been the occasional skirmish in Turkey and the Kurds clearly still intend to control the northern oil cities, but on the whole matters have gone all right.

Unfortunately, the situation doesn’t seem entirely stable. The US just detained 11 Turkish soldiers, who were reportedly trying to assassinate the Kurdish governor of Kirkuk. It’s a touchy enough situation for Cheney to handle it personally.

Truth is, our alliance with Turkey was important because we needed another ally close to the Middle East. With troops in Iraq, that need diminishes. Armenia and Georgia aren’t really hotbeds of trouble right now.