To read today's news I fear it may be.

Via Reuters and Yahoo News

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's prime minister raised the stakes in his showdown with followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, saying in an interview broadcast on Monday they would be barred from elections unless their militia disbands.

The comments followed an offensive by government forces into the cleric's Baghdad stronghold, the Shi'ite slum of Sadr City, in which heavy fighting returned to the capital after a week of relative calm when Sadr called his militiamen off the streets.

"A decision was taken ... that they no longer have a right to participate in the political process or take part in the upcoming elections unless they end the Mehdi Army," Maliki said in an interview with CNN, according to a report posted on the U.S. television network's Web site.

Maliki's threat to drive Sadr's millions of supporters out of the political process heightens tensions in a conflict that has divided Iraq's Shi'ite majority and led to the worst fighting since extra U.S. troops arrived last year.

The situation in northern Iraq is becoming clearer.  The Turkish paper Today’s Zaman reports in several current articles on the goals and timetables of the Turkish invasion.  The resulting picture is of a long-term presence meant to change strategic alignments in the region as much as to fight the PKK.

My transcript from AlJazzeera English video (below).

Turkey had threatened this for months but it still caught everyone by surprise . . .

Turkey claimed 10,000 soldiers crossed the border into Iraq, though the Turkish authorities and the Iraqi government subsequently put the figure much lower.  Impossible to say who's right since the area of fighting is sealed off.

Update 1:09 PM EST 2/23/08 by LithiumCola: CNN is calling this a "major escalation."

As The Sunday Times reveals more about Sibel Edmonds revelations of corruption, criminal activity and drugs smuggling between US Neo Cons and Turkish 'Deep State' 13 people have been detained in Turkey accused of being members of a ultra nationalist Turkish right wing milita called Ergenekon.

Is this a coincidence or are some in the Neo Con/Turkish Deep State alliance getting nervous about future promised revelations from Sibel!

Condoleezza Rice, Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science and 66th United States Secretary of State, arrived unannounced in the oil rich Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Tuesday, just after Turkey's attacks on Kurdish targets in northern Iraq, to do what she does best: step into a bad situation and make it worse.  

Is is me or is it the way the media reports it as if it's a "sudden" events re: Turkey's invasion of Iraq?

Turkish incursion overshadows Rice visit to Iraq

The danger is that assuming Obama is the next 'guy in DA house', what good will it do to Iraqi Arabs [from their point of view, but of course needless to say withdrawal is imperative in any case] that we withdraw if Turkey just continues Bush's war?

And more...
What do we need the Kurds as enemies (too) for?
It's Turks' problem not America's

msnbc

ISTANBUL, Turkey - The Turkish army entered northern Iraq on Saturday, the army said.

The army operation came a day after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said his cabinet had authorized the armed forces to conduct a cross-border operation against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels.

more soon as this story updates

update:  link added

updatge: msnbc adds more

The Iraq Sustainable Democracy Project has been gathering testimonials, interviews, and data from villages all over northern Iraq where there is the most "democracy". Christopher Hitchens has led the growing chorus proclaiming the victory of Western ideals and democracy in the Kurdish-ruled north of Iraq, which is under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

But the ethnic cleansing goes on. Haven't had your heart broken yet today? Read on.

NOTE: This diary was posted earlier, but I feel that this needs to get the attention of every kosser here.

I was listening to the View from the tv downstairs, and it was the usual: women just chatterin’ to one another. Then, out of nowhere, one the panelist went on to talk about the "good things" that was currently happening in Iraq. She continued on to say that it was getting safer and that we were doing a good job.

But, what made me mad was "we were winning the war."

That is when I shook my confused head, and said outloud,"Bullshit."

It's being reported today that Turkey attacked an abandoned village in northern Iraq. Although the village was empty, it points to much deeper and more troubling issue. Why has the U.S. allied with both the Turks and the Kurds while avoiding the obvious issues that divide them? And, why does the U.S. continue to arm both groups, giving both military assistance and training? More below the fold.

I was spending my late Monday morning like any typical day: on the computer screwing around, while I had the tv on to keep myself company. Then something happened that made me really pissed off.

I was listening to the View from the tv downstairs, and it was the usual: women just chatterin’ to one another. Then, out of nowhere, one the panelist went on to talk about the "good things" that was currently happening in Iraq. She continued on to say that it was getting safer and that we were doing a good job.

But, what made me mad was "we were winning the war."

That is when I shook my confused head, and said outloud,"Bullshit."

Our government has long used the excuse of "defending our national interests" to justify taking various sorts of action overseas.  This is understandable... all nations have certain "national interests" outside their borders.  But the problem here is that those "national interests" remain undefined... generally classified as a matter of national security.  This stifles debate about whether the pursuit of those "national interests" really is in the best interest of the nation.  There comes a time when the motivations of a nation have to come into question, and should be subject to real analysis.  I believe that such a time is most assuredly during the waging of a preemptive war. Disingenuous rhetoric about "spreading democracy" and  the supposed threat of "Islamofascism" has no place in such a debate, especially given that so many, indeed it might be argued all of our allies in the region are at least to a very real degree antidemocratic, and our own democracy can be subjected to increasingly withering criticism as "national security" begins to take precedence over the values of a free and open society and our government seems more and more distant from the public with each passing electoral cycle.

We really are doing everything that Al Qaeda wants, in US foreign policy, aren't we?

I mean - let's think about this... they say they want a caliphate... the best way to achieve this isn't taking over one country at a time in some rolling islamic revolution.  Just not doable in the modern world.

It is better to return modern society to the kind of structure that existed at the time of the caliphate, feudal tribal structure, with no overarching central government even possible due to the countless minor local disputes taking all the focus.  (Think Iraq today.)

Remember, remember the fifth of November
The warmongering, treason, and plot,
I know of no reason why the Bush treason
Should ever be forgot.

No, this fifth of November, President Bush won’t sneak into the cellars of Congress to blow the House and Senate up (why should he, with them doing his bidding like a collective Sancho Panza for a modern Don Quixote chasing windmills with cruise missiles?). There are other reasons for this fifth of November not being forgotten. When President Bush meets Recep Tayyip Erdogan on this day, not only the future of Turkey’s policy towards Northern Iraq and the PKK but also the course for war with Iran will be decided on. November 5, 2007, may not culminate in a firework but carry destruction through the diplomatic backdoor and entail future conflagration of historic dimensions. Guy Fawkes heroically failed to set the British Parliament afire, but if George Bush succeeds in talking the Turkish Prime Minister into accepting a deal, he may set the whole Middle East afire.

McClatchy: Former air-force general Joseph Ralston, appointed a year ago to help end the activities of Kurd terrorists, blasted George Bush over American promises to Turkey about ending PKK activities in Iraq:

The officer who commands U.S. forces in northern Iraq, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Nixon, last week said he planned to do "absolutely nothing" to curb PKK activities.

Ralston, a vice chairman of the Washington-based Cohen Group, a consulting firm, said the statement was "directly opposite" promises Bush has made to Turkey.

'Directly opposite' promises Bush has made to Turkey...  

Poor Kurds. Like everyone else in the world, the vast majority just want a little peace and quiet to raise their kids and enjoy life. They tasted a semblance of that recently in Turkey, and in gratitude, voted in almost unanimously the Islamicist Justice and Development Party. It will prove to be yet another of history's bitter ironies for the Kurds, and a telling indictment of the Bush Mafia's "Freedom'n'Democracy" agenda, with over 100,000 Turkish soldiers massed at the Iraq border, that after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit with Bush this November 5, they will be at war with the very same government they recently voted for:
http://www.ndtv.com/...
http://ap.google.com/...

Officially, talks between Iraq and Turkey stalled over the weekend, as the Turks found the Iraqi government's proposal most unsatisfactory. Now, officially, the Turks are waiting on high-level meetings, first with Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice (Nov. 2-3) and shortly after with President George W. Bush (Nov. 5) before deciding on what to do.

The thing is, it looks like the call has already been made for a joint and limited strike against PKK bases along the Turkish-Iraqi border and what is passing for shuttle diplomacy these days is more aptly called seat-of-your-pants war planning.

But these are the Bush Years. You're used to this already.

Saddle up, boys and girls. Lock and load. We goin' for a l'il ride!

Finally, a general on active duty in Iraq who UNDERSTANDS!

In Turkey, pressure builds to attack Iraq
http://www.latimes.com/...
By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 27, 2007

ISTANBUL, TURKEY --

...For days, tens of thousands of Turkish troops have been massing along the 200-mile southern border with Iraq, and commandos have entered several miles into Iraq in hot pursuit of rebels. Combat helicopters and F-16 fighter planes daily attack suspected guerrilla hide-outs and escape routes...

...On Friday, Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, said he planned to do "absolutely nothing" to counter (Kurdish rebel) activity, and that he was neither tracking the rebels' movements nor reinforcing the military presence in the region.

(continued)