I think it's safe to say that the national interests of Turkey no longer align with those professed by the Bush administration to be America's national interests. I suspect it won't be long before our NATO allies are on the wrong end of the barrel of weapons provided by the US to the Kurds, or even weapons handled by US special forces.

It would be a historic twist appropriate for this stupid little war; that it turns into World War I redux. After my visit to Turkey in 1987, I often wondered if it would ever come to that; the military wields a great deal of political power in Turkey, a democracy by most counts. The military has been a secularizing force, but also an anti-liberal force; debtor's prisons existed in the 80's, and I saw a man grovel at another's feet in fear when he learned the person with me was a Turkish army officer and not an American sailor.

The Turkish govt. feel threatened by the Kurd minority in their own country, even though most Turks have forgotten the Kurdish guerilla (or terrorist–depends on who you are) attacks of years ago. But Kurds with money and resources…that could be bad for Turkey's efforts to keep its Kurds down. So they prepare to send in troops.

Intramural hostility isn't unheard of; think Cyprus. Think what would happen when an army we equipped and trained aces an army we're equipping and training. Hmmm.