The result of Bush's failed Iraq policy: crisis brewing in the region

[ProSense]

US keeps low profile as Turkey simmers in crisis

by Jitendra Joshi
22 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is lying low as a political crisis unfolds in Turkey, a pivotal military ally which the administration sees as a democratic bridge between Islam and Europe.

Washington has given only a muted response to veiled threats of intervention from the Turkish military to prevent the election of an Islamist figure as the staunchly secular country's president.

"There's a lack of trust in Ankara, so wise counsel to the generals to keep to their barracks wouldn't do much good in this situation," said Steven Cook, an expert on Turkey at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

"America's standing in Turkey is quite low so probably the best thing for the administration is to continue to keep a low profile and say it supports democracy in Turkey," he said.

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Turkish-Kurdish Dispute Tests U.S. Strategic Alliances

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 8, 2007; Page A17

While President Bush's new strategy in Iraq focuses on stopping the violence in Baghdad, trouble threatens to boil over in Iraq's Kurdish region to the north, which the administration frequently holds up as an island of stability and a model for the future.

The long dispute between Turkey and Iraq over renegade Kurdish fighters camped on the Iraqi side of their shared border reached new heights last month. When the head of Iraq's Kurdish regional government threatened to provoke an uprising among Turkish Kurds, Turkey responded with warnings of direct military action and an angry complaint to Washington.

Ankara has massed thousands of soldiers on its side of the border and has warned it will dismantle the camps in Iraq if the U.S. military will not use some of its nearly 150,000 troops in Iraq to do it.

In an effort to placate the Turks, the Bush administration recently sent Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's senior aide on Iraq to meet with Turkey's top diplomatic and military leaders. In a television interview there, Iraq coordinator David M. Satterfield blamed Iraqi Kurdish leaders and promised that the administration will lean on them. "The Kurdish leadership must do more to address this problem of terror and terrorists," Satterfield said

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12 dead in bombings at Baghdad bridges

BAGHDAD (AP) — Two suicide car bombers struck police checkpoints near bridges in a predominantly Shiite area of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people, as Iraq's Kurdish president said his country may need American troops for one or two more years.
The blasts, which struck in quick succession, sent smoke billowing into the sky and shattered the calm of the traditional Islamic day of rest, three hours after the end of a weekly afternoon driving ban.

The violence started when a sedan exploded near a bridge as police were checking vehicles waiting to cross. That was followed within minutes by the explosion of a fuel truck at a checkpoint near another bridge, police said. Both bridges spanned the Diyala River, which feeds into the Tigris.

The 12 killed included six policemen, police said.

U.S. and security forces have increased the number of checkpoints as part of a security crackdown in Baghdad and surrounding areas.

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Commander in Iraq asks for more troops

By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer
15 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The U.S. commander in northern Iraq said Friday that he doesn't have enough troops for the mission in increasingly violent Diyala province.

Maj. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon also said that Iraqi government officials are not moving fast enough to provide the "most powerful weapon" against insurgents — a government that works and supplies services for the people.

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Additional troops have been flowing into Iraq for months as part of President Bush's plan to try to get a handle on violence in the four-year-old war.

Initially, Bush ordered an extra 21,500 combat troops to the country — mainly to be used in Baghdad, but also in Anbar province. An additional 7,000 are going in support positions.

The last of five extra brigades planned in the increase is to arrive by June. There are some 146,000 U.S. troops in Iraq now.

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