I didn't assume this would wreck our progress since Iraq has hit Kurds in northern Iraq even under Saddam.
So as the Turks massed troops, I figured all the crisis amounted to was setting the parameters for low-level Turkish strikes using small numbers of troops and aircraft.
The Turks have struck:
The air strikes were at least the second Turkish operation against the PKK inside Iraq this month. Turkish helicopters pounded suspected rebel bases on December 1.
Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek warned Turkey would launch more cross-border strikes if necessary.
"The government, working in harmony with all state institutions, primarily the armed forces, is determined to take this scourge off the country's agenda," the Anatolia news agency quoted him as saying.
The Turkish parliament authorised cross-border operations in October, but Ankara has so far held back from any ground assault amid strong lobbying by Washington.
I assume Turkish special forces are involved more quietly, too. And some Turkish units have been inside Iraq all along and they remain. So the Turks have hit the Kurdish PKK and there is no invasion. And with winter closing in, the option for a big multi-brigade or larger operation this year is closed. If it was ever really open, of course.
We worked the problem and bought some more time for the rest of Iraq to improve.
UPDATE: About 300 Turkish troops crossed the border, though whether to conduct an operation or to rotate troops already inside Iraq is unclear. The article also describes the Turkish presence inside Iraq:
"They are going there as reinforcements, they are not returning," the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
About 1,200 Turkish military monitors have operated in northern Iraq since 1996 with permission from local authorities. A tank battalion has been stationed at a former airport at the border town of Bamerni and a few other military outposts were scattered in the region. Ankara rotates the troops there.
So this won't be the event that causes Iraq to unravel as many thought in the fall.
