Forget the US attack on Iran to destroy Iranian nukes, as prophesied by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker magazine, an allegation that is being amplified by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leaders of the Democratic Party.

The truth is that President Bush cannot go to war with Iran because Bush is already at war with Turkey, dating from 2003 when US forces entered Iraq to emancipate the Kurds.

Bush will not risk a new war with Iran when he could lose his war with Turkey. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is displaying considerable resolve in recent weeks in confronting the US-PKK-Iran threat.

In fact, the more the US-Turkish conflict intensifies, the more Iran – as Turkey’s historic adversary – gains influence over US policy, which in turn reduces the odds for a future US-Iran conflict.

In recognition of Iran’s rising influence, Iraq is now openly aligning with Iran against Turkey, without a word of protest from the US. This week, for example, the Iraqi and Iranian foreign ministers called upon the US to redirect the mandate of the Istanbul security summit on Thursday, to be attended by Secretary Rice. Ankara has focused this summit, for understandable reasons, on the PKK crisis. Now Iraq and Iran want to forego the PKK debate and instead discuss the entire range of Middle East security issues. By aligning with Iran, Iraq has provoked Turkey, emboldened the PKK, and advanced Iran as the new superpower of the Middle East.

In short, with Iraq’s defection to Iran, a US attack on Iran is now unthinkable. Iran has become a key US ally, while Turkey has become the US’s primary adversary in the Middle East.

In fact, the US has already carried out the equivalent of a Pearl Harbor attack against Turkey by occupying Iraq and emancipating the Kurds. The US’s Pearl Harbor attack on Turkey has had limited success, despite Turkish PM Erdogan’s resistance. Iran and its Kurdish/PKK allies now control two-thirds of Iraq’s territory, everything aside from Sunni-dominated Anbar Province.

With the US occupation of Iraq, the US has converted Iraq into a staging area for terrorism against Turkey and the Arab states. The US’s assault troops are the PKK and PKK allies in Iraq such as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and Iran’s Special Operations Forces.

Moreover, Iraq is engaged in large scale terrorism not to serve its own interests but the interests of Iran. Iraq is now advancing long standing Iranian goals by assaulting Turkey and Syria, to be followed by Iraqi assaults on Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. If Iraq prevails in its assault on Turkey and the Arab states, Iran would control most of the Middle East’s oil production.

To put it another way, contrary to President Bush, Iran’s true threat to the world is not that Iran may acquire nuclear weapons in three to five years. The true danger is that Iran and its PKK allies, with US assistance, will use Iraq to defeat and destabilize Turkey-- a member of NATO -- in the next few weeks.

If President Bush prevails, PM Erdogan’s requests will be brushed aside in his 5 November meeting with Bush where Erdogan will demand US action against the PKK . Instead of US-Turkish cooperation against the PKK, Turkey and the US will go to war. Iran will get a free pass from Bush to become the Middle East’s superpower. Is this what the American people want?