Iraq

After the third US chopper was downed by resistance forces / terrorists / Baath remnants (take your pick) the Americans are now bombing the area it happened in.

Now, that's logic... guerilla fighters are by their very nature mobile, they are long gone from there by now. What's left there are the locals... who are probably not growing any fonder of the Americans by being bombed. In fact, they are probably becoming more polarised with each American sortie. But hey, showing them you are tough is the American way... it's what got them in all this trouble in the first place.



Meanwhile, Turkey is testing the water:

"The US has promised to remove the terrorists," said the Turkish Foreign Minister, Abdullah Gul. "We are still waiting for America to fulfil its promise. We believe that it will.

"But Turkey has the right to take pre-emptive action to defend its own security interests, just as Israel and the US do. The US Government must take this issue seriously."



I suspect that oil-rich region is looking mighty attractive to Turkey right now, all they need is an "incident" that would allow them to move in there and annex the area, "pre-emptively" of course, all in the interest of their national security. The Turks are not slow learners...



My guess is they will wait until the US presidential race is so heated not one of the candidates will actually dare to act in fear of losing votes. It is simply too tempting, all that oil and the "Kurdish problem" solved for once and all...