The Turks are coming

"We have no friends other than the mountains." - Kurdish proverb

With more than 100,000 troops and all those F-16s, tanks and helicopter gunships massed on the Turkish-Iraqi border, the new George W Bush greater Middle East war - that is, the Turkish invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan - is ready to roll.

This "war on terror" blockbuster spin-off may screen against the wishes of Hollywood, sorry, Washington market gurus; anyway the fireworks are unlikely to start before the crucial Washington face-to-face on November 5 between Bush and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyep Erdogan.

To say this is all part of a "structural crisis" between Turkey and the US would be the understatement of the century. Turkey is actually deciding nothing less than its real geopolitical position in a mesmerizing balancing act involving Iran, Israel, the Arab world, Europe, Russia and the US. Asia Times