Some in the blogosphere appear to be getting excited that a Kurdish uprising may be occuring in Syria.
Thankfully, it appears some people in Washington realize a major conflagration in Kurdish areas of Syria is one of the last things the U.S. needs to be cheerleading right now.
We've already got our hands full trying to stave off any Iraqi Shi'a-Sunni internecine warfare. Let's please not throw ramped up Kurdish irredentism into this already toxic mix.
The prospects of local Syrian Kurds vying to be 'annexed' by Iraqi Kurdistan is a threat to the U.S. policy goal of preserving a unitary Iraqi state in its present borders.
And it also increases the chances of more muscular Turkish machinations in the north of Iraq aiming to stave off similar Kurdish nationalist enthusiams in eastern Turkey.
Which, in turn, heightens the chances of peshmerga and Turkish troops squaring off--another Iraq worst case scenario.
Let's hope the U.S. 'delegation' in Syria will help dampen down the situation.
A Syrian Hama style crackdown will beg major Kurdish resistance (and cross-border infiltrations) setting off a series of events that will spell significant trouble for coalition efforts in Iraq.
Aside from the horrible human rights implications that another Hama evoke.
Posted by Gregory Djerejian at March 15, 2004 09:25 PM