What's next: a Turkish- Iraqi war?

Turkey began shelling the Kurdish dominated part of northern Iraq this week.

Why?

Because an autonomous Kurdish region in a fragmented Iraq ignites the hopes of Kurds who live in Turkey, Syria, and Iran that their ancestral homeland will be reunited and, that with the oil revenue from the fields around Kirkuk to fund them, the dispersed and persecuted Kurds could actually make a go of an independent homeland.

I don't even hate to say that I told you so. But let me remind you that Turkey is our ally in NATO, even though they haven't been cooperating with us in Iraq, FOR JUST THIS REASON. The Kurds have been running an insurgency in Turkey for decades, and the chaos in Iraq has only fueled those embers. The Kurds are also a persecuted minority, and have been since the realignment of the Middle east by Western powers after the first world war. And of course, this is yet another mess that we'll have to dabble in-- with poor to little results, as usual.

I just love those unintended consequences, don't you?

More to come later. I'm sure.