John at Americablog brings it to our attention that Turkey is considering invading northern Iraq in order to strike Kurdish insurgents operating from there. 

Tell me if this sounds familiar, but the Turkish government is under pressure to do something after an overall increase of insurgent violence in southeastern Turkey and the fact that Kurdish guerillas recently killed a number of Turkish soldiers and border guards in a cross border raid.  Bear with me, but it seems that neither the Iraqi government, nor the autonomous government of Kurdistan nor the American government have done anything to help reign in these insurgents crossing into Turkey despite Turkish protests so looks like they're gonna have to take things into their own hands. 

Now, I don't know if Turkey will do something or if they're just rattling sabres here, but its pretty clear that in Lebanon the U.S. government fully supports Israel's right to defend itself but somehow feels the need to push for restraint from Turkey in a similar situation.  We're prepared to sit back and hope the Lebanese government doesn't unravel due to the Israeli assault, but need to constrain Turkey because we fear a Turkish incursion, however justified, would severely weaken an Iraqi government that can't control Baghdad let alone its own borders.  You also can't tell me that the moral high ground claimed by advocates of preemptive war applies to one autonomous nation and not the other due to what extent it interferes with American foreign policy because frankly we set the standard and now we have to live with it.  A lot of things sound good in theory or as a cheap political soundbite but I think we're finding they also have real world implications that are far more messy than the "grown-ups" in charge are willing to admit.