From Free Speech Radio News 2/29/08:

In Washington DC, about 4-dozen people from the Kurdish American community, many of whom have family in Kurdistan, protested Turkey's invasion of Northern Iraq.

They delivered petitions to the State Department, intended for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The letters express opposition to and disappointment with the US's support of Turkey's use of military force against the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. Ismial Sindi's relatives live on the border of Turkey and Kurdistan.

"We are helping each other when we changed the Iraq regime so we want the United States to stay with the Kurdish because we help the United States."

Sharif Behrez says Turkey is violating Iraq's sovereignty.

"It's territory should not be violated but also because the Kurds have been able to put together a peaceful and stable region and the Turkish invasion de-stabilizes the region and Iraq as a whole."

The activists also sent letters to members of Congress, urging the US to change their policy and advocate for diplomacy. The Government of Turkey has said all Turkish troops would be out of Northern Iraq by this morning. But denies that that decision was in any way influenced by the United States.

This particular invasion of Iraq has been suspended, but it is highly likely that Turkey will invade Iraq at its slightest whim. This illustrates several aspects of the situation in Iraq that the corporate media would like us to ignore.

1) The situation in Iraq is a quagmire and is getting worse. No amount of wartime propaganda will change that fact.

2) The US military, with two wars and over 700 military installations in the US and abroad, has little left to respond with in situations where that might be necessary. That is a major reason why the Bush regime did nothing while Orthodox Christian extremist Serbo-Croats burned down the US embassy in Serbia. ("Serbs" and "Croats" actually are the same ethnic group. They are divided along the lines of religion.)

3) The Bush regime is highly dependent on Turkey as a supply route for its illegal war in Iraq, which gives Turkey a huge amount of leverage over the US. That is why pro-war Democrats like Nancy Pelosi backed down on a long overdue House resolution to condemn the Armenian genocide by Ottoman Empire, which included Turkey.