By Jim W. Dean, Managing Editor on December 22, 2015
Bad Habits Die Hard: Turkey to Beef Up
Troop Presence in Iraq
… from Sputnik,
Moscow
The UN Security Council plays the fool
once
again, but the public seems not to care
[ Editor’s Note: The ink is not
dry from Turkey’s recent admission of a “misunderstanding” over sending troops
into Iraq, but would not do so again without consultations with Baghdad. Today
Davutoglu tells us Turkey will do so, and for the reason I have
editorialized about.
The Turks simply claim it is for
an anti-terrorism operation to defend themselves so having the host countries
permission might be nice, but not necessary.
Turkey must feel, or have gotten the word,
that the UN will take no action against it. This gets even more confusing when
the US had also formally stepped in and said Turkey have no right to put troops
in without Iraq’s permission.
This whole thing is turning into a sitcom
as we have had the Pentagon saying it is going to be running expanded Special
Operations missions, despite Baghdad saying no. And since the US has no bases
there they must be planning to use friendly ones in the Kurdish area where the
Iraq Defense forces have no control, and surprise, surprise, where the Turks
will be operating.
Notice how despite Iraq’s protestations, it
never went to the UN to demand a resolution against the US for putting combat
troops in, probably because the US would veto. Iraq has urged the
UN to censure Turkey but it is dragging its feet so far, and not Turkey
has preempted them with the “we will do what we want ” move. If this all seems
a little confusing to you, join the club, and welcome to the new game being
played now where what countries say and do can turn on a dime, including
the reasons for doing so.
Such actions once would incur a tag of
being called a “rogue nation”, but it seems now that if one is a NATO
nation they can get a free pass. We will be ending the farce about NATO
being a defensive organization in 2015, and the UN’s main charter plank that
all nation’s territory is inviolable by another member nation. It’s all stage
theater… Jim W. Dean ]
____________
– First published … December
22, 2015 –
Turkey will ramp up its military presence
in Iraq, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Tuesday. Ankara will send
additional forces to a Kurdish village in northern Iraq 17 kilometers
from Mosul.
Turkey started withdrawing its troops
on December 14, after Iraq had officially filed a complaint
with the UN Security Council, calling on the United Nations
to ensure an immediate pullout of the Turkish forces from its
country’s territory.
“Unfortunately, the Iraqi army and security
forces are unable to act effectively against ISIL… The fall
of Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, underscored the need
for international participation in the conflict,” Prime Minister
Ahmer Davutoglu told members of his ruling AK Party in parliament
on Tuesday.
Earlier, Ankara said that it was continuing
the withdrawal of its forces from the Bashiqa camp in Iraq’s
northern Nineveh province.
“We are rendering support to the local
Peshmerga and volunteers and will keep doing this as long as the
terrorist threat persists. Our military men stationed there respect the territorial
integrity of Iraq,” Davutoglu noted.
Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus later
said that part of the Turkish military contingent had been moved elsewhere
and that the Iraqi government had welcomed Ankara’s move. He also stated that
the Turkish troops would stay on in Iraq until Mosul had been freed
from Daesh occupation.
On December 4, Turkey deployed
about 150 troops and 25 tanks to the Bashiqa camp in the
northern Iraqi province, without Baghdad’s approval, allegedly
as part of an international mission to train and equip Iraqi
forces to fight Daesh.
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