The Problem Of Tough-Guy-ism

Joe Sudbay at AmericaBlog really nails this one. Warhawks, led by the Vice President, constantly jabber that we cannot allow Iran a nuclear weapon or even the knowledge to create one, and how we need to show toughness rather than capitulation, which incidentally is the mentality that has led Cheney to embrace the failed policies of the Soviet Union in the Middle East, and recreate their disaster in Afghanistan.

But the point is, a nation cannot back down from aggression. Except if that nation is called Turkey and backing down would at least save one part of Iraq from descending into catastrophe.

Turkey’s military confirmed today that eight of its soldiers were still missing after an ambush by Kurdish militants a day earlier that left at least 12 Turkish soldiers dead and touched off a major escalation in Turkey-Iraq tensions.

Kurdish militants claimed they had captured the missing soldiers, intensifying fears that Turkey would retaliate immediately by sending troops across the border into Iraq. Turkey said it hoped that the soldiers were simply out of communication range, but it continued today to bolster its forces on the border, including both land and air units [...]

On Sunday, Mr. Erdogan said that he had initially delayed a decision about retaliating against the ambush, after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had personally intervened.

This is where the entire worldview of the right breaks down. The PKK is clearly a terrorist organization which has been engaging in cross-border attacks for some time. Turkey has every right to defend themselves from such attacks. But because it would destabilize Iraq, the same people who want to recklessly move into Iran must urge caution. It's nonsensical, and puts these tough-guy conservatives in the position of defending a terrorist organization (nothing new for them, the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, a State-Department-named terrorist organization, is who the neocons are backing in Iran) and counseling for calm and peaceful diplomacy. They claim not to be acting mindful of realpolitik, yet that's all they do.

It's FORTUNATE that Turkey will exhaust diplomatic options before striking back at the PKK, by the way. What's unfortunate is that you have so-called leaders running this country with no sense of their own intellectual bankruptcy.

UPDATE: I should add that it's also this failure of leadership and constant drumbeating for war which cause other countries to emulate the US and use US actions as justifications for their own. Eventually that's where we're going with this imminent Turkish border war. Tristero has a very smart piece about this.