RALPH PETERS WRITES THAT BUSH IS BETRAYING THE KURDS: This is damning stuff if true — nasty, and stupid besides. It’s not clear to me, however, that it is true. But it bears watching.

The rap on America in the Middle East has always been that it screws its friends and appeases its enemies. We’re supposed to be changing that.

UPDATE: Zach Barbera emails:

While being still somewhat skeptical of Turkey’s good will in Iraq. I find it amusing that now that the Iraqi Governing Council has something bad to say about an American deal, the media suddenly finds the IGC legitimate.

Hmm. I’m tempted to spin a “rope-a-dope” theory based on that observation, but I think I’ll restrain myself this one time.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Austin Bay has some (almost blog-like!) comments over at StrategyPage:

This puts the forces of a major Muslim nation in Iraq as peacekeepers, which is a political coup for the US. At the same time, the troops are (of course) Turks. Turkey has numerous current interests in Iraq as well as deep historical connections. Many Kurds and Arabs in Iraq have abundant reasons to distrust Turkey. There is also the possibility of political blowback inside Turkey. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is taking a huge domestic political risk. To say the majority of the Turkish population is uneasy about getting involved in Iraq puts it mildly.

Bay doesn’t seem that enthusiastic — if you read the whole post, I think it’s fair to say that he characterizes it as high-risk, but only medium return.

ANOTHER UPDATE: The Dignified Rant thinks that Peters is letting his hostility to the Turks, and his enthusiasm for a Kurdish state, distort his judgment here.