Meanwhile, in Iraq...

Here is a story that's been growing for a while, but has been largely ignored by most... the Turkish invasion of northern Iraq (to fight separatist rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, considered a terrorist group). The Iraqis are none too pleased about all of this-

The Iraqi government demanded for the first time that Turkey immediately withdraw from northern Iraq, warning Tuesday it feared the ongoing incursion could lead to clashes with the official forces of the semiautonomous Kurdish region.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the operation would only end "once its goal has been reached."...

...Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the first confirmed Turkish military ground operation in Iraq in about a decade was a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.

Iraq has sovereignty? This is news to me. The U.S. has a fine line to walk here-- after all, who are we to lecture anyone on invading Iraq?-- as we attempt to take both sides-

The United States cautioned Turkey Sunday that military measures alone cannot resolve the Kurdish problem as separatist rebels urged urban violence in response to a major Turkish offensive against their camps in northern Iraq.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, due in Ankara next week, defended Turkey's military action in northern Iraq against the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and played down concerns that it might destabilise Iraq.

But he stressed Turkish forces should "leave (Iraq) as quickly as they can accomplish the mission" and urged Ankara to take political and economic measures to win over its sizeable Kurdish community and erode popular support for the rebels.

Us lecturing anyone on leaving as quickly as possible, I'm sure will be taken seriously.

The President's (official) justification for invading Iraq was built upon a domino theory, though such lofty ideas have long since been abandoned. The dominos have been falling, though not in the direction the neocons wanted. Believe it or not, when you invade, occupy, and destabilize a country in the heart of a region, it tends to have ripple effects.