The Kurds, the only Iraqis to really benefit from our occupation, are starting some shit with Turkey.

Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, came under intense pressure last night to order an invasion of northern Iraq following the deadliest attacks for over a decade on the Turkish military and civilians by separatist Kurdish guerrillas.

Mr Erdogan, who has resisted demands from the Turkish armed forces for the past six months for a green light to cross the border into Iraqi Kurdistan, where the guerrillas are based, called an emergency meeting of national security chiefs to ponder their options in the crisis, a session that some said was tantamount to a war council.

A Turkish incursion is fiercely opposed by Washington since it would immensely complicate the US campaign in Iraq and destabilise the only part of Iraq that functions, the Kurdish-controlled north.

Two Turkish soldiers were killed yesterday in booby trap explosions laid by guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) - fighters classified as terrorists by Ankara, Washington and the European Union. Those casualties followed the killing of 13 Turkish soldiers in the south-east on Sunday when PKK forces outgunned a Turkish unit of 18 men without sustaining any casualties, according to the Kurds.

Encouraging the victims of constant attacks to ignore them because it would "complicate the US occupation" is a pretty flimsy argument.

Would Americans allow their country to be attacked because it might upset Mexico if we retaliated? Yeah I did not think so.

If we want to help stabilize Iraq then I would think that the United States would be telling the Kurds to control their people or risk losing any American support. This fight has been raging since the early 1980's and I am sure it will continue long after our troops are out of the potential crossfire.