No Corner On Surges

It’s not just the size of this funeral ceremony in Trabzon, in northeastern Turkey, for a private who was killed fighting Kurdish rebels.  (Similar protest are taking place across the country.)  It’s how the scale of the demonstration mirrors the extent of the fighting going on in Northern Iraq right now.

The Turkish incursion, five days old and three miles deep, involves 10,000 troops, with active bombing support from Turkish fighter jets.

But then, what of it?  When it comes to Iraq, the American frame of reference these days fails to extend beyond: “the surge is working.”

Turkey Resists Pressure to Wind Up Iraq Operation (Bloomberg)



(image: Tekin Atay/AP.  Feb. 24, 2008. Trabzon, Northeastern Turkey. via YahooNews)