I just saw this really interesting piece of news from Reuters. Reporting about the air and artillery strikes in Iraqi Kurdistan Reuters wrote:
Dismissing reports the raids hit villages, Turkey’s General Staff said its targets were fixed “after it was established that they were definitely not civilian residential areas.” The three-hour offensive, reported to involve 50 fighter jets, also included ground forces shelling suspected positions of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq. “According to initial valuations, all the planned targets were hit accurately,” the General Staff said on its Web site. The Turkish army has massed up to 100,000 troops near the border, raising fears that a major cross-border operation could further destabilise Iraq and fuel ethnic and sectarian tensions. However, initial responses to the weekend raids from Turkey’s main allies stopped well short of condemnation. The United States, Turkey’s main military ally, has said it was informed of the raids in advance but did not authorise them. A Pentagon spokesman also said Washington had given Turkey intelligence to track Kurdish fighters hiding in Iraq, but would not say whether it gave precise targets used in the raids.
Here is another Reuters piece, this time via Yahoo News:
The United States has given Turkey intelligence to track Kurdish fighters hiding in Iraq, a Pentagon spokesman said on Monday, but he would not say whether Washington gave Ankara precise targets used in weekend raids. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman also would not say whether the United States gave Turkey prior approval to use Iraqi air space to conduct the strikes. “The United States continues to assist with information to the Turkish government that will help them deal with the insurgent situation that they have up there,” Whitman said.
The Pentagon had said it was helping Turkey gain the “actionable” intelligence needed for a strike against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants. Actionable intelligence refers to information that can be acted upon, such as data that pinpoints the location of a target for a military strike. Asked specifically whether the United States gave Turkey targets used in weekend raids, Whitman said he would not “get into details like that.” He said the Pentagon was providing information that would be “helpful in dealing with this insurgent terrorist threat.” When told by reporters that his answer implied the Pentagon had indeed provided such “actionable intelligence,” Whitman said, “That’s probably OK.”
Is there any possible way to conclude from all that doublespeak that the USA was *not* involved in the preparation and execution of these strikes? The airspace over Iraq is under US control, and the Pentagon actually admits giving ‘actionable intelligence’ about the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan to the Turks.
There is no possible doubt that by providing the Turks with ‘actionable intelligence’ the Pentagon provided Ankara with targeting information crucial to the execution of these strikes. It would also appear that the USA could be held at least partially responsible for designating the targets as “definitely not civilian residential areas”. The inescapable conclusion from all this is that the PKK guerrillas would be certainly justified in considering the US forces in Iraqi Kurdistan has an hostile enemy force.
One can only wonder at what was going through the minds of the Pentagon spokesman when he volunteered the information that the USA had given the Turks ‘actionable intelligence’: did he pause to think for one second that this kind of irresponsible (and useless) admission was putting all the US forces in Kurdistan at risk?
From the point of view of the PKK it would make perfect sense to blow up some valuable US military target (remember the Marine barracks in Beirut?) to teach the Americans a simple lesson: that the Kurdish fighters can turn Kurdistan into another nightmare for the US occupation forces if they proactively assist the Turks in their military operations.
By siding with Turkey the USA is risking opening yet another front in its war against the Iraqi people. US commanders, with their legendary short-term memory, seem to have forgotten that Kurdistan is no safe haven for US troops. Sure, for the time being the Kurds are tolerating the US occupation forces, just like the Shias have generally done so far. But the ‘redirection‘ is already deeply alienating the Shias and the latest developments in Kurdistan indicate that with its typical imperial hubris the USA thinks that it can also afford to alienate the Kurds.
One can only wonder – are the Americans simply out of their minds?!
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Update 1: according to the BBC Massoud Barzani, head of the Iraqi Kurdish regional government, has refused to meet with Secretary Rice. Keep in mind that Barzani represents, at least in the minds of the Administration, the ‘good Kurds’, in contrast to the ‘bad Kurds’ of the PKK.
In the meantime, a small Turkish troops have made in incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan.
So far the Turkish actions are rather symbolic in nature (December is just not a good time for a ground invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan) and they are probably designed to please the public opinion in Turkey. Such ‘armed PR’ can end up having very serious consequences for the US occupation forces throughout Iraq.
Update 2: more details from the DemocracyNow website: U.S. Military Sharing Intelligence on Iraq With Turkey. Meanwhile Pentagon officials have revealed the U.S. is providing the Turkish military with real-time intelligence on northern Iraq. The Washington Post reports U.S. military personnel have set up a center for sharing intelligence in Ankara providing imagery and other immediate information gathered from U.S. aircraft and unmanned drones flying over Northern Iraq. One U.S. military official said the United States is “essentially handing them their targets.”
There aren’t MNF-I forces in Kurdistan. There are only 4 combat MND-N battalions in Ninevah + Zaab triangle in Salahadin. “Most” of these forces are in the Zaab triangle.
Total MND-N forces in Ninevah province = 1 to 2 combat line battalions.
Similar number of MND-N forces in At Tamin province.
Within 5 months Salahadin goes PIC (only Baghdad and Diyala will not be PIC out of 18 provinces.)
MNC-I forces are leaving the north. How does PKK affect them?
By the end of next year, there will only be three division commands under MNC-I instead of the 5 (of which 1 will be British) now. There will be 2 division commands by mid 2009.
MNC-I will have one division field command by spring 2010.
Off topic; notice that 2 Kurdish divisions are being incorporated into the IA (brings the IA to 15 divisions + ISOF + IZN + IZAF)
http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/pdfs/FINAL-SecDef%20Signed-20071214.pdf
DJ Elliott will give a good analysis soon.
I think you are confusing issues here. There have been plenty of US forces in Iraqi Kurdistan (depending on what one calls ‘Kurdistan’: are Mosul or Irbil part of ‘Kurdistan’?). But the nominal area of deployment does matters less than area of responsibility. If you think that the Empire is seriously considering letting go of the oil rich areas of Kurdistan at a time when the local government is making oil deals which are opposed by the Central government you are quite mistaken. Believe me, no matter what US Military sites tell you there are plenty of US forces in Kurdistan. Not only that, but the US invasion forces are highly reliant on Kurdish forces even outside Kurdistan proper, even in the capital. Lastly, if the PKK can strike throughout Turkey they can do so easily anywhere in Iraq (or even beyond, as they brilliantly demonstrated in coordinated and simultaneous strikes on Turkish embassies in three European countries in the 1980s).
You speak of ‘Kurdish division’. Anand – you are right here: they are *Kurdish*. There is simply no such thing as an “Iraqi Army” and that means that what the US propaganda calls “Iraqi Army” is just a collection of ethnic and religious militias which can turn on their occupiers at any time they get pissed off.
Also – forget this discussion of ‘divisions’. There is no division level combat in Iraq. IEDs, snipers, platoon or company level engagements, mostly ambushes combining all of the above. This is a civil war and a guerrilla war with no fronts, no ‘rears’ and no rules.
Empire means global capitalism governed by the rule of law. Ideally empire functions without any actual troops. That is how the large majority of the world (stable parts of the world) already function. Stable parts of the world are closely integrated and interdependent with the rest of the global economy, governed by predictable rule of law, free market, and pro business. For example Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Switzerland and Sweden are very much part of the “Empire.” Global multinational companies, business people, and investors freely operate there protected by the rule of law. In fact, they are more empire than America. Many feel that they are more free market, capitalist, and pro-business, and less regulated than increasingly big government, intrusively regulated, nativist (ala Lou Dobbs, Amy Goodman, Ann Coulter) America.
Military forces are only needed in the less stable parts of the world that have not been incorporated into the empire yet.
The Kurdistan provincial police (Peshmerga if you prefer) are enforcing what you call “empire” in Kurdistan. There is no need for MNF-I to go there. Why would they go, when there are so many other higher priority missions for those soldiers?
Regarding Iraq, company level engagements have been rare in recent months. With respect to your allegation regarding sectarianism, please find any evidence that 1st, 3rd, 7th, 8th, 9th IADs have behaved inappropriately in recent months. You could claim that every military in the world is sectarian. That does not make it true. You need to provide evidence. Note that the 2nd and 4th IADs started out as local national guards that were converted into IA divisions. Now most of their soldiers are no longer Kurd, and they have been described in glowing terms by observers (who have no incentive to use glowing terms to describe them). I have yet to here any allegations of misconduct against 2nd and 4th IADs (excluding the former SIBs—that were transferred from FPS–under their command.) Col. Twitty (who maintains one brigade up north for all of Ninevah and northern Salahadin) described 2nd and 3rd IADs as two of the best quality military forces he has “EVER” encountered from any military. Colonel Twitty was under no pressure to make the statement he volunteered. He believes it. 2nd and 3rd IADs are better quality at the soldier level than any divisions in the Syrian army in my opinion.
The National Council, Iraqi JFC (which reports to the National Council), IGFC, Corp HQs, Division HQs, Brigade HQs (BSTBs), battalion HQs, are not irrelevant. They are critical to maintaining and coordinating many social services functions within Iraq since the IA is the most capable institution in Iraq at the moment, and is deeply involved in non-core activities. These headquarters are hardly irrelevant. You do realize that every brigade BSTB in the IA has an EOD company, combat engineering company, and TOC (HQs.) And the quality of the EOD and combat engineering companies in the new IA are much better quality than in the old (the engineers from the old form Iraqi Army form the core of the new). Foreigners are in awe of the quality of educational institutions that Iraqi Engineers maintain (they are breaking off from the ITDC—Iraqi Tactical Doctrine Command—to create an army core of engineers.) These brigade HQs are responsible for much of the recent improvements in Iraq’s infrastructure and local reconstruction.
Total violent deaths in Iraq were about 600 a month in October and November. By contrast South Africa had about 1500 violent deaths a month during the same period. Converting per capita ( * 26 million/48 million) = about 813 violent deaths a month equivalent for Iraq. Iraq has been less violent per capita than South Africa in recent months. Of course, at the peak Iraq experienced three to four thousand violent deaths a month. And you could make the case that the current security gains are not yet permanent and self-sustaining.
But, it is important to keep the violence inside Iraq in context.
Anand, *please* listen to the Dahr Jamail audio I posted. Please. You are so far off anything real that I simply don’t have the energy start trying to get you back down to earth. Whatever anti Dahr Jamail stuff you might have heard from doubleplusgoodthinking “patriots’ – just listen to what he says, ok?
‘I can only show you the door, but you must walk through it yourself’ :-))
OK. I’ll try to listen tonight.
I usually find out about your posts via e-mail.
I like the Matrix quotes :-) I love the Matrix.
BTW, maybe you can show a little more respect to my friends. I think I know them a little better than you do ;-) You can disagree with them; but they are not gullible or stupid. :-)
My friends have a lot of informal contacts with officers and NCOs in Iraq. Their information is not based purely on military briefs.
You should participate in blogger briefs and ask questions. There are usually 1 or more briefings a day. You can ask any question you want in the briefings that interest you.
For example, one of my friends confirmed the information I provided you regarding Iraqi engineers in these blogger briefs.
At the level of lt. Colonel you can often get a lot of good local specific information related to their domain. A number of ISF officers also participate. 4 star general Vice Chief of Staff Iraqi JFC Adabi provided a lot of useful information in one of these blogger briefs. (Although, as I said, usually it is better to talk to lower ranking officers.)
I am happy you agreed to listen to Dahr. As for your friends, I cannot show them respect, or a lack of respect for that matter, since I have no idea who they are. What I can tell you is that ALL communications from the military to a public platform are carefully staged, managed and controlled. Heck – even FEMA press conferences are staged nowadays. So if you want to truth, you need to get it from unembeded sources, like Dahr.
I just had an idea: since you like asking the military questions, can you find out more about what happened to the platoon which got ambushed in the video from Afghanistan which I just posted? I wonder why they put the truck first and whether they had any casualties from this attack.
I am still waiting for the ‘anti-Indian’ quote from Arundhati Roy, by the way ;-)