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POPSLand for Grabs: Turkey and Iran Invaded North Iraq IT'S A MAJOR MILITARY OPERATION BUT YOU MAY HAVE WELL MISSED IT! Ankara said 22 battalions, or about 10,000 soldiers, were taking part in the operation in northern Iraq and also south-eastern Turkey. It said the ground troops were being reinforced by F-16 and F-4 jets and Cobra helicopter gunships. The US and Nato have issued statements in support of the Turkish government. And so is Iran. To get a better grasp of the situation in Iraq: Was Iraq Better Off Under Saddam? According to many Iraqis it was! Conditions have gotten so bad in their country, they'd like to see Saddam Hussein back in power. Women have lost almost all their rights and are being pushed back into the corner of their house. Today under the current 'democracy' of Iraq, there is little to stop violence against Christians in a country where fundamentalist Islam has increased its hold.
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POPS Syria And Iran Manipulating Turkey On Iraq? Instead of playing charms with Tehran and Damascus, the Kurdestan city of Soleimaniye must reinforce its own deterring force and maintain stability and peace on its northern border with Turkey. Knowing all too well that the new Islamist Government in Ankara is shifting the grounds inside the modernist Kemalist Republic, Iraq’s Kurdish leadership mustn’t offer any reason for a Turkish adventure in their areas. Hence, it is recommended that the Kurdish leaders of Iraq be the ones to reign in the PKK to avoid having the Turkish Army crossing the borders. The US can – and should - broker arrangements between the Iraqi Kurds and the Turkish military to avoid the rise of an anti-Kurdish Triangle in the region.