UPDATE FROM KURDISTAN….Now blogging over at World Politics Review, Judah Grunstein casts a gimlet eye on the recent Turkish incursion into Iraq that’s aimed at beating back PKK guerrillas operating from bases just inside the border of Iraqi Kurdistan:
There are conflicting reports about just how many troops Turkey has sent into northern Iraq, with the general trend being bearish. Initial Turkish TV reports (passed on by the press) put the number at 10,000, citing unnamed military sources. Reuters put the number at 8,000, or two Turkish brigades. Later television reports lowered it further to 3,000, which the Iraqi government today bid down to 1,000, only to be undersold by the American military command in Iraq which claimed that only a few hundred Turkish troops took part. The Turkish military, meanwhile, closed the bidding by warning that “media reports about the scope of the operation were misleading and exaggerated.” (If this keeps up, look for reports of a Kurdish incursion into Turkey by tomorrow.)
Actually, it’s probably a good thing that everyone is trying to downplay this. But read the whole post for more.
