Give Up Your Weak Airstrike Strategy, Mr. Obama, and Let the US Military Do Its Job

AP reported today that Turkish warplanes have struck Kurdish rebel positions in southeastern Turkey, in the first major airstrikes against the rebel group since peace talks and a truce began two years ago to end a 30-year insurgency. Turkish F-16 and F-4 warplanes bombed Kurdish PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) rebel targets near the Iraqi border, in the town of Daglica, in response to PKK shelling of a military outpost, the Turkish armed forces said, although Kurd media say that Turkey started the shelling some days ago. The private Dogan news agency said the Turkish jets hit PKK targets in response to intense "harassing fire" by PKK rebels on a military outpost. The air raids caused "heavy casualties," according to the Hurriyet Daily. The strikes followed a three-day PKK assault on a military outpost with heavy machine guns and rocket launchers, it said. Clashes were also reported between the PKK and troops in the Tuncel area of east-central Turkey on Monday, far from the border. Last week Kurdish protests gripped Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern provinces. At least 31 people died in widespread street clashes, as Kurds expressed anger at Turkey's passive policy over Kobani. The army imposed a curfew in some areas. But some of the fighting was reported to be between PKK supporters and Islamist Kurds sympathetic to ISIS. Turkish Prime Minister Davutoglu accused Kurds of using the peace process as a means to "blackmail" Turkey into taking action to defend Kobani, but said his government is determined to press ahead with efforts to bring about a Turkish-PKK peace. The Kurds are furious because Turkey has done nothing to halt the ISIS attack on Kobani. PKK fighters have been helping Kurdish YPG militia in Kobani but Turkey has refused to help supply the PKK, its long-standing enemy, with weapons or allow Kurdish fighters in Turkey to enter Syria. Two PKK commanders wounded in the Kobani fighting were arrested by Turkish authorities when they arrived for treatment at a hospital in southeastern Turkey, according to the Anatolia news agency. Separately, some 260 YPG militia were arrested when they crossed into Turkey last week, although 60 of them were allowed to go back, Turkish media reported. Turkey treats the PKK as a "terrorist" organisation and its leader Abdullah Ocalan is in jail. But he has been Turkey's main point of contact in peace negotiations since he was incarcerated in 2012. The PKK is also labelled "terrorist" by western governments. The insurgency has killed more than 40,000 people. ~~~~~ On Tuesday, the US-led coalition launched 22 airstrikes on ISIS positions in Syria, with all but one targeting positions in and around Kobani, the US Defense Department said. Idriss Nassan, deputy head of Kobani's foreign relations committee, said : "Over the past night there have been very intense airstrikes by the coalition that targeted several Daesh [ISIS] positions in and near Kobani." He added that Kurdish fighters later captured a major Kobani hill and brought down the black ISIS flag. The extremist group still controls more than a third of the predominantly Kurdish town. Kurdish leaders, including jailed PKK chief Abdullah Ocalan, have warned that the fall of Kobani would end the Turkey-PKK peace process. Meanwhile, PKK commander Cemal Bayik has been quoted in Turkish media as saying that some PKK fighters who had withdrawn from Turkish territory as part of the peace efforts have now returned to Turkey, causing another rift in the truce. The Kurdish PKK is an important force on the ground in both Iraq and Syria fighting ISIS. ~~~~~ Dear readers, the return of violence between Turkey and the PKK, which began in 1984, is only part of the complications Turkey faces as it negotiates its role with the US and NATO allies fighting ISIS extremists. Turkey is using its strategic position - geographically and militarily - to achieve several goals. First, it wants the moderate Free Syrian Army armed and supported. Second, it wants the US-led coalition to attack Bashir al-Asszad and his Syrian regime, including a no-fly zone and a free zone for refugees on the Syrian side of the Turkey-Syria border. So far, President Obama has been unwilling to agree to any of these demands and so Turkey has refused to partcipate in the coalition it joined or do anything to help save Kobani. If this impasse continues long enough, Turkey will probably achieve its unspoken third goal - let Kobani fall to ISIS and thereby separate the Kurds into at least two smaller groups that would be less dangerous to Turkey domestically. It is impossible to believe that the US military is not aware of all this. We might hope that during today's coalition meeting at Andrews Air Base near Washington, the American and other coalition military leaders in attendance will finally be able to make President Obama see his current airstrike strategy for what it is - a failure unless it is accompanied by US Special Forces leadership on the ground to direct strategy and give tactical input to both the Iraqi and Free Syrian Army ground troops, as well as to provide airstrike targeting information. It is this weak Obama strategy that gives Turkey leverage, not the correctness of Turkey's position. The US is reportedly spending $10 million each day on its airstrike strategy - with close to "0" payback, and it is pointing to the likelihood of losing the entire Anbar province in Iraq and with it, the Baghdad Airport - a catastrophe that could lead to an evacuation of Americans from the Baghdad Green Zone that would be reminiscent of the US helicopters leaving Saigon. Cannot Mr. Obama try to break out of his politically-driven position - which, incidentally, is so unpopular that it will cost him the Senate majority on November 4 - and accept the truth that wars are fought by the US military, not by a White House Harvard think tank. Give it up, Mr. President, before the entire Middle East goes up in ISIS flames.