• Kurdish rebels in Turkey appear to mobilize for return to days of all-out conflict
    9 replies, posted
[QUOTE]LICE, Turkey (AP) — The military helicopters swooped in over the Kurdish heartland and dropped white incendiary powder on a raging brush fire — igniting a massive conflagration that raced through the mountains, devouring orchards and livestock. For Kurds living in nearby Lice, the recent Turkish operation brought back memories of the traumatic days in the 1990s when the army twice burned the town to the ground. The military may have been trying to smoke out Kurdish militants, who had allegedly set off a car bomb near Lice killing a soldier and wounding four more. But locals in Lice, where the rebels have widespread support, see a more sinister motive: "Just like the old days," said local journalist Metin Bekiroglu, "they want to spread fear." In an abrupt reversal, Turkey and the Kurdish rebels appear to be hurtling toward the return of an all-out conflict that plagued the nation for decades, before a fragile peace process was launched in 2012. A truce that has helped bring social and economic stability to Turkey evaporated only one week into the government's new offensive against the militant Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which stretches from southeastern Turkey to northern Iraq. Old habits of militancy, killing and retaliation are returning to a region that until recently harbored hopes of joining mainstream Turkish life. Forest firebombing is not the only provocative method Turkey is using to put pressure on the Kurds. In nearby Diyarbakir, the spiritual capital of Turkish Kurds, fighter jets are taking off for dozens of sorties to hit PKK strongholds in northern Iraq. The planes screech over the city as if to send a threat of destruction. Many Diyarbakir residents have relatives in the mountains among the Kurdish targets.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/08/03/turkey-kurd-rebels-gear-up-for-return-to-all-out-conflict[/url]
So turkey is now using chemicals to enflame a wildfire. Against civilians. I'm pretty sure that's violating a good handful of treaties and conventions.
[QUOTE=AnonymaPizza;48372333]So turkey is now using chemicals to enflame a wildfire. Against civilians. I'm pretty sure that's violating a good handful of treaties and conventions.[/QUOTE]WP is banned for use against civilians, but not as illumination iirc; it just so happens that often a secondary source of light comes from the burning civilians.
[QUOTE=AnonymaPizza;48372333]So turkey is now using chemicals to enflame a wildfire. Against civilians. I'm pretty sure that's violating a good handful of treaties and conventions.[/QUOTE] And the USA won't give a shit because our foreign policy operates like we are still in the Cold War. We don't need Turkey. It's a useless country controlled by an insane demagogue. We really should support Kurdistan if we are looking for allies in the region.
[QUOTE=BananaFoam;48372874]And the USA won't give a shit because our foreign policy operates like we are still in the Cold War. We don't need Turkey. It's a useless country controlled by an insane demagogue. We really should support Kurdistan if we are looking for allies in the region.[/QUOTE]The Kurds, while rather progressive by the region's standards, have nothing near the military might of Turkey; one of the few NATO countries that actually pulls it's own weight. The US would under no circumstances want to lose them as an ally.
[QUOTE=Sgt Doom;48372886]The Kurds, while rather progressive by the region's standards, have nothing near the military might of Turkey; one of the few NATO countries that actually pulls it's own weight. The US would under no circumstances want to lose them as an ally.[/QUOTE] I'd rather we not trade morals for outsourced military strength thanks though. We should stand for what's right, not what's most convenient/easy for us.
[QUOTE=draugur;48372963]I'd rather we not trade morals for outsourced military strength thanks though. We should stand for what's right, not what's most convenient/easy for us.[/QUOTE]That's geopolitics in a turd-coated nutshell. So long as shitty regimes ingratiate themselves with a larger power, they're relatively untouchable.
If this happens it would cripple most of the ground efforts against ISIS.
[QUOTE=draugur;48372963]I'd rather we not trade morals for outsourced military strength thanks though. We should stand for what's right, not what's most convenient/easy for us.[/QUOTE] You're basically asking to undo the US foreign relationship. And that of China. And that of UK. And that of France. Yet not that of Sweden....
[QUOTE=draugur;48372963]I'd rather we not trade morals for outsourced military strength thanks though. We should stand for what's right, not what's most convenient/easy for us.[/QUOTE] What are these 'morals' you speak of?
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