A New War in Iraq?

Turkey is massing troops along its border with Iraq to confront the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, militants who have long waged a separatist insurgency within Turkish borders. The strategy and timing is questionable: An army relying on conventional tactics will struggle to control the PKK’s skilled mountain fighters. Furthermore, Turkish intervention in Iraq could invite military action from Iran, which has also accused PKK of staging attacks within Iranian borders. The PKK, said to have eco-feminist goals, claims to have renounced armed struggle other than for self-defense and renounced calls for a Kurdish state in the region. The PKK is neither a moderate group advocating peace nor an extreme terrorist organization, but somewhere in the middle, argue Time Magazine writers Andrew Lee Butters and Nahr al-Bared. For now, the US has called for all parties to stay out of northern Iraq, a relatively peaceful part of the nation. Both Turkey and Iran resent the increasing autonomy of Iraqi Kurds. Though the Iraqi Kurds have no direct links with the PPK, Turkey fears that their new power could inspire demands from other Kurdish groups. The article in Time suggests that that the US, Turkey and Iran could all find reason to target Kurds as a scapegoat, relying on intervention to distract from military, economic and political problems throughout the region. –YaleGlobal