Iraq: An Irresistible Invasion Magnet

Iraq has the mysterious magnet to attract sovereign nations to invade to their own peril. Once America invaded it, surged it and now emptied its own treasury and depleted the military to "conquer" Iraq, Turkey decided mulish roving bands of independence-minded PKK rebels was worth crossing their border into Iraq's Kurdish territory. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's gave a television address to announce his military decision after the Turkish cabinet authorized this a month ago. No politician in the US who voted for the Iraq Debacle or championed it with fake vials trotted out to the UN, is in much of a position to say Iraq is a sovereign nation - Turkey cannot invade. International irony on military parade.

Catastrophic failure of diplomacy results from not building any leverage points for negotiations, so really big armored stuff that kills innocents and terrorists alike is seen as the ultimate final solution. Since this is a hot zone right now, the US's fashionista Secretary of State is globetrotting off to Ethiopia, then Brussels next week. That Middle East diplomatic whatever in Annapolis, MD, last week got a collective yawn around the world while Bush tried to make it the new new cornerstone of his crumbled legacy with Rice's able assistance in appointing a new ME envoy with tons of shiny stars from his military career. During Katrina, Dr. Condoleeza Rice was in New York City stocking up on Ferragamos and attending the Broadway play Sir Spamalot! She's not exactly the FedEx of Diplomacy - getting there on time and stuff. But Diplomacy would have to be a premium tool used by the US first and this is a prime example of a loss of America's moral authority. Turkey is a member of NATO and an ally - sheesh, one can imagine just how US enemies are now trembling and cowering in fear. Osama's latest YouTube submission put paid to that.

Soon after, the Turkish government secured parliamentary approval for cross-border military operations into northern Iraq. The United States and the Iraqi government are keen to avert a large scale incursion.

Ankara nevertheless made it clear that it would be keeping its options open and refused to rule out a military response to any PKK activity.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, has waged a 23-year armed campign for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey's southeast. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

"It is an operation against a very precise target and this is not a surprise given that Turkey has said and repeated (sic) that it was going to crack down on terrorists in northern Iraq," Kuloglu told television channel NTV.

Turkey, for right now a moderate Muslim power, invades northern Iraq under the control of Kurds who now have some of the richest oil deposits in the world plus people on both sides of the border that want an independent state; Kurdistan, carved out of both nations. There are 100,000 angry and anxious Turkish troops sitting on the Iraqi border after losing 12 men in rebel sniper attacks and having 8 captured. Last month, George Bush pledged to share the USA's intelligence (er, um, cough, nevermind...) on the PKK rebels with Turkey. The ironic pancake flipside to that is Turkey has a map courtesy of the US to hit the Kurdish rebels with military strikes after instituting a no-fly zone in the 1990's to protect that area from Saddam Hussein.


Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence is from Aliza Markus, an award-winning Boston Globe reporter with 8 years invested in covering the PKK and its origins.

Who Keeps a Thirteen Month Calendar?

(photo courtesy BBC)

On 12 September, Ethiopia will reach their 2000 millennium based on their traditional thirteen month Julian calendar. In 2000, for those with regular 12 month calendars, the rest of the world saw spectacular celebrations and exceptional firework displays, every hour on the hour from each time zone, until the city of glitz and glamour became dull with a colored light shown on the Hollywood sign as its boring contribution. Seven years plus later, Ethiopia is finally going to get its Party On for the Third Millennium. Perfect do over for those who want a shot at a brand spanking new 2000. President Gore.

Enormous red, yellow, and green banners flutter from the sides of most major buildings in the capital, Addis Ababa, showing off the country's colors. Women in traditional white embroidered dresses dance through shopping malls while onlookers ululate. And residents are buzzing about which star-studded party they want to be at Wednesday.

The main event on tap for Wednesday night is a musical concert featuring The Black Eyed Peas, a Los Angeles-based pop group, as well as dozens of top Ethiopian artists.

The $1.2 million concert, which was supposed to be free to the public, has been shifted to a new $10-million conference hall that construction workers were working day and night to complete, right up until Wednesday. (Photo courtesy Reuters/Radu Sigheti)

Only those able to pay $170 – two months' earnings for the average Ethiopian – will be allowed to enter, but the event will be broadcast live on television and on a big screen at a stadium open to the public.

Ethiopia had hopes to draw tourists in massive numbers, as well as Michael Jackson and Beyoncé, but due to security issues, the crowds are much smaller than planned. This led to the cancellation of an international soccer event and requiring a ticket purchase for concerts previously billed as free. Well, it is a kind of retro 2000 celebration - we know where we can send the goofy glasses with the 00's in them when the world is done. Meanwhile, Ethiopia is excoriating the UN and dismissive of Eritrea over the border dispute that has lent itself to a loss of security, bringing a damper on the celebration. Eritrea fought a civil war with Ethiopia to gain its independence ending in 1993, but hostilities erupted again ending in the other Gregorian calendar version of 2000.

Somalia is vowing a multitude of retributions. In the midst of all the strife and strafing, why would a bureaucratic Tourism minister say its safe, when their are obvious reasons that what they are saying is demonstrably false? As part of Ethiopia's Millennium Celebration the government is freeing 10,000 prisoners. That said Ethiopia still stands alone as the only African country never subjected to colonialism, enduring a short brutal occupation in their just ending Second Millennium by Mussolini's Italy.



Rebecca G. Haile's book, Held at A Distance: My Rediscovery of Ethiopia, was released in paperback in May 2007. Her parents fled in 1976 and years later her journey takes place back to the African country, unlike any other on the vast continent.