It appears after your posting it was just another bad idea shelved for later... Lately, Bush has been a little more conciliatory to the Turks, because the Turks have been threatening all-out invasion, since Iraq's PM Maliki could care less what the Kurds do, after they used a constitutional amendment to govern themselves.
The whole problem in Iraq over the Kurds, is that Pres. Talabani supports partition and the Kurds, and PM Maliki supports nationalism and the Shiites. The government is in disunity because no one is willing to compromise, and EVERYONE is corrupt.
The Turks angered the Bush administration back in 2003 when they refused permission to allow our jets fly through their air space and set up bases in Turkey. A few years of unresolved grudges between the two have evolved in civility, because Turkey wants to be in the EU and France opposes their entry.
Enter Bush, who is finally realizing that Turkey could be a very stabilizing partner in the region, since the Iraqi government is impotent in all matters, and doesn't have control of their military enough to restrain the PKK.
I think that Turkey is humoring the US, because Bush isn't long for this presidency, and they're just playing the waiting game.
Yes, apparently the plan is, to keep the Turks from going into Iraq, we're threatening to attack the Kurds, people who have been our allies in this cluster****. So, if Washington goes through with this, not only will this result in God knows how many more Iraqis will get caught in the crossfire, but our troops, already caught in what is a Sunni/Shiite Civil War, will now have to deal with some really, really pissed off Kurds. God, the nightmare just won't end, will it??
