Just talked to a very keen observer of the Turks.
Here’s his take: “It’s very, very bad. We either let them do it, and
carve the north up w/ them, or you say, `There’s no doubt about this,
you can’t go in.’ We’ve more or less extended our protection n to the
Kurds. Which means that there could be a US-Turk battle. I don’t think
so, but it could happen. It would be very bad.
There was a meeting between the Turks and the Iranians last week, and
I’m sure the Iranians said, `Let’s divide up the north.’ You either let
them do it, or you have to stop them, there’s no halfway house.
I always argued, `Why don’t we just a deal with the Turks?’ But we
didn’t do that. I blame the diplomacy here—the administration doesn’t
seem to have really done their homework.
The good news is that it hasn’t happened yet. So, the Turks are
obviously nervous about it. I think the Turks can still be frightened
off. We would have to tell them, `If you want to go in, you’ve got to
let us through and go in with us.’”