Turkey’s Role in Iraq – Precursor to War?

Turkey’s Role in Iraq – Precursor to War?

By Peter Koenig

December 13, 2015 "Information Clearing House" - What is Turkey doing in Iraq? Who invited them? Who incited them to shoot down the Russian SU-24? – The answer is the same. The Pentagon / NATO gang of aggressors. They found that Turkey is the perfect patsy for this type of operation. Erdogan’s corruption and greed make him a vulnerable pawn. He and his family are sucking up cheap Daesh / ISIS oil stolen from Syria and Iraq and ‘smuggled’ into the open gates of Turkey, where it is whitewashed so to speak and sold to the world, including to Israel. Exact amounts are not known, but are estimated in the billions of dollars since the Islamic State’s occupation of Northern Iraq and parts of Syria in 2014. Erdogan is also a megalomaniac – dreaming of expanding his influence in the region – and of a new Ottoman empire.

On 3 December Turkey deployed a few hundred troops and 25 tanks to Bashiqa just north of Mosul, the center of an oil rich region, an ISIS stronghold. The reason, the Turkish Defense Minister claims, is to train Kurdish Peshmerga and Arab fighters against ISIS. Ahmet Davuloglu, Turkish Prime Minister, says his country’s troops have been in Bashiqa since March 2015 with the consent of the Kurdistan Regional Government. Despite this presence – or because of it, Turkey being a key supporter of the Islamic State – Mosul, the oil-rich capital of Iraq’s Niniveh Province and the heartland of Kurdistan fell to ISIS in June 2015.

Turkey’s real motives may be securing and controlling northern Iraq, an area rich of petroleum and homeland of Kurdistan and much more importantly – pleasing the Washington masters who want Turkey on behalf of NATO to interfere with Russia’s air force fighting the Islamic State.

This war tactic against Russia by proxy was also applied when the US and Saudi air force guided Turkish F-16 fighters to ambush one of Russia’s two SU-24 on 24 November 2015. What proxy – Turkey being a NATO member? – But Turkey also being a loose cannon, her acts of aggression against Russia may be sidelined by NATO.

On 3 December Iraq’s Prime Minister and Commander in Chief said clearly, “I did not ask any country to send foreign ground troops and we will [consider] any sent as hostile act.” He categorically rejected such action as an infringement on Iraq’s sovereignty and asked Turkey for immediate withdrawal of her troops.

Russia asked the UN Security Council to discuss Turkish military action in Iraq and Syria. Washington waffled, not knowing what to say, other than this was an issue to be resolved between Iraq and Turkey. See also how State Department’s spokesman John Kirby insults an RT journalist, who simply asked about Washington’s reaction to the Turkish invasion of sovereign Iraq.

So far nothing has changed. Iraqi protesters demonstrate against Turkish military presence in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square. But Turkey remains steadfast in northern Iraq, knowing that she has the full, if tacit, support of Washington and NATO – and the Saudi’s for that matter.

If Turkey shoots down a Russian plane it’s called a ‘blunder’ in the western media. If it were a more serious NATO partner like the UK, France or Germany, not to mention the US, it might even in the western public opinion become an act of aggression – an escalation towards WWIII. Turkish acts of aggression on Russia are just minor provocations, hoping Russia will fall into the trap of retaliating and starting a direct East-West confrontation.

[link to www.informationclearinghouse.info]