"Bloggers pressed Kucinich about the impeachment issue. While agreeing that the administration should ultimately be held accountable under international law, Kucinich opposed immediate impeachment proceedings. "We must keep the focus on our troops, Kucinich said. "The minute impeachment is on the table, this President will accelerate the war even more."* Reuters:
But he added, "if Bush attacks Iran, all bets are off." Later he added, "We need to safeguard our Constitution." If the President takes steps towards another war, Kucinich warned, Congress could make "an active effort" toward impeachment.
"The President is clearly trying to provoke Iran," he said, adding that the Bush administration is "treading on the thinnest ice it has ever been on.""
"Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Friday reaffirmed Turkey's right to send troops into Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels there and chided U.S. officials for questioning it.* larisa:
"The Turkish Republic will do whatever is necessary to combat the terrorists when the time comes, but it will not announce its plans in advance," Erdogan told a news conference after a meeting of his ruling AK Party.
"We say we are ready to take concrete steps with the Iraqi government and we also say these steps must be taken now."
In sharp language underscoring Turkish anxiety about the chaos in Iraq, Erdogan said it was wrong for Washington -- "our supposed strategic ally" -- to tell Turkey, with its historic and cultural ties in the region, to stay out of Iraq.
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Washington has appointed a special envoy to coordinate measures with Turkey aimed at tackling the PKK, but analysts say it will not apply military force against the group, given the scale of the problems it faces in the rest of Iraq.
"We don't want to waste time with abstract statements, we want concrete results," said Erdogan, who has said the Iraq situation is now a bigger foreign policy priority for Turkey even than its bid to join the European Union.
Ankara's biggest nightmare is a violent breakup of Iraq and the emergence of a Kurdish state in the north that could in turn foment separatism among Turkey's own Kurds."
"There are few figures in US history who are as despised as E Howard Hunt, the operation 40 graduate, assassin, drug dealer, and one of Nixon's chief plumbers.
A man who should have turned 88 in prison, instead this sociopath celebrates his criminality by writing a book in which he claims that President Johnson had JFK murdered, claiming also that he - that is Hunt - had nothing to do with it.
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If I seem a bit angry, it is because people like Hunt and what they have done are the reason this country is where it is today. And anyone not familiar with Hunt and the dead bodies that have piled on around him over the years, would do well to study some history."
* NYT:
"A second question is whether Mr. Bush will step up covert as well as overt efforts to halt Iran’s nuclear program. So far, the evidence collected by the International Atomic Energy Agency suggests that Iran’s nuclear efforts have run into technical obstacles, but concerns remain that inspectors are missing secret facilities. A third question is what Washington would do if the Iranians looked for ways to strike back.
Escalating tensions are the fear of American allies in the region, who worry about Iran, but worry more about provoking it.
On Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney argued that America’s actions were intended to protect allies in the Persian Gulf — though it is far from clear that Iran’s Sunni Arab neighbors have signed on to the strategy. “If you go and talk with the gulf states or if you talk with the Saudis or if you talk about the Israelis or the Jordanians, the entire region is worried,” Mr. Cheney said on “Fox News Sunday.” He described how the Iranians “sit astride the Straits of Hormuz” and its oil-shipping channels, how they support Hamas and Hezbollah.
“So the threat that Iran represents is growing,” he said, in words reminiscent of how he once built a case against Mr. Hussein. “It’s multidimensional, and it is, in fact, of concern to everybody in the region.”"
6 comments:
Erdo?an is talking out of his ass. He's not going anywhere right now. Kurdistan has a natural protective coating in the winter; it's called snow. If they come, it will be in the spring. They will come and they will die, as they have so many times in the past.
Unless the US has approved a Turkish occupation of South Kurdistan, along with Mûsil and Kerkuk. If so, watch everything go straight to hell, because then even ordinary Kurds in the South will join the pê?merge and gerîlas in killing these vermin--at least, this is what I was told by everyone when I was last in South Kurdistan. There is also talk of uprising in North Kurdistan in the event of an invasion. Kurds there are already so pissed off and so pro-PKK, that I wouldn't doubt it. Let's not forget vulnerable Western Turkey in that event either.
Another couple of things to remember: 1. It's an election year in Turkey. 2. Contrary to all the Turkish propaganda in Western media, there are no Kemalists in Turkey. These people are neo-Ottomans, and they want their empire back.
I have also heard the speculation that if Turkey makes a grab for South Kurdistan and the oil, Iran may do the same in the south of Iraq to consolidate the balance of power against Turkey (and NATO). Then there are wider ramifications, such as the ongoing cold war between NATO and the SCO, especially for energy resources of the Middle East and Central Asia.
Let us see what happens in February. Büyükan?t will come to DC then, probably dragging along the laughing foreign minister, Gül. Gül is just for show. Büyükan?t is the only one that matters.
We are living in interesting times.
You mean LBJ didn't have JFK bumped off? Or rather is it unlikely that E. Howard Hunt was not involved?
In 1960, when JFK named LBJ as his running mate, my father, who knew "Lynton "(a Texasism), said to me, "If I were Jack Kennedy, I wouldn't walk down a flight of stairs in front of that man."
mizgin - interesting times indeed. I'm not sure i could (emotionally) handle another war at this time. goddammit.
notjonathon - nice story. i'm not sure what larisa's position is re LBJ - but she sure has a thing for Hunt.
Kucinich is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Dopey and Darth only understand one thing: SELF INTEREST.
Unless the Dems hold a sword over their teeny weeeny peenies, they won't get a damned thing out of them.
Want the troops home? Start impeaqchment proccedings. They'll bring them home to save their own sorry asses.
I'm not sure i could (emotionally) handle another war at this time.
You'll learn to live with it, Lukery. We've been fighting for a very long time. we don't like it, but we're used to it.
After a while, you just get used to everyone being dead, or crippled, or fucked up. But, hey! If they're just crippled or fucked up, they're still alive.
mizgin - thnx for the buckup!
i know i made a stupid comment - but just the thought of the current wars nearly does my head in.
i can't for the life of me imagine what it's actually like in the streets or hills of iraq.
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