it's late, I'm tired and I really don't feel like shifting through The Washington Post, The Guardian, and MSNBC to find out if CNN really has unbasisedly and accurately reported on the Turk's Asserting Their Buffer Zone.

Suffice to say, I don't see refugees as a valid reason for a build up of the Turkish Army on the Iraqi border when the Kurdish rebels in Turkey have been fighting for the past 15 years against the opression of the Turkish government...the Kurds treat Turkish intentions with a great deal of suspicion considering the track record of dealing with Kurds in Turkey. I am having a great deal of difficulty believing a few things with this scenario:

1) That Kurdish refugees will immediately flee to Turkey
2) That Iraqi refugees will not be welcomed by the Kurds or flee to Iran, Syria, or Saudi Arabia (all of which have refugee camps)
3) That the U.S. military forces/advisors in North Iraq will support military management of refugees by Turkey 20 km over the border without A) Bringing it up with NATO and/or B) Questioning the sanity of Turkey when massive amounts of aid will be flowing through Iraq as U.S. Policy has been containment and the fall of Baghdad i.e. the capture/assignation/ouster of Saddam Hussein

I was going to mention China's preparing for confrontation with the US in more detail although it's not exactly war related. I think it really deserves a seperate post considering it poses a definite paradigm shift in foreign policy...