Iraq has become the new Lebanon.

Nobody was up in arms years ago when the Iran/ Iraq war was going on. Now another country wants to invade Iraq? What's the matter with Iraq? It seems THEY are the focal point for hostilities no matter what year it is.

It is a tribal conflict on the simplest level.

The Kurds and Turks hate each other with a passion.

The Kurds want to reclaim land they lost from Iraq and Turkey.

Because many in the region supported Iraq's invasion of Iran, including the Saudis and the Kuwaitis (and in a strange twist of fate, both the Americans and the Soviets). But once Saddam old house of cards was blown away the idea of a independent Kurdistan became a possibility, a Kurdistan that claims not only northern Iraq but vast swaths of East Anatolia (East/South East Turkey) and North West Iran. The Turks have been fighting the PKK for years (with murderous results for both sides) and now see northern Iraq as a base for a terrorist organization and now they want to be able to take them on. You know as part of the War on Terror.