Democrats got their wish: Turkey is moving to start operations in northern Iraq.

The Turkish parliament Wednesday authorized cross-border military operations into northern Iraq to combat Kurdish separatist rebels as world leaders implored Turkey to delay any action.

In the hours before the parliament voted by a gaping margin of 507 to 19 to give Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan permission to launch strikes any time over the next year, Iraqi and NATO officials made a flurry of cautionary, last-minute telephone calls to the country’s top leaders.

Democrats, who not long ago routinely complained that the Bush administration needs to return to realism, have decided that it’s more important to stand on principle over an issue that affects absolutely no one still alive than to ensure victory in Iraq. Of course, neither realist nor idealistic foreign policy should dominate at all times regardless of the issue. But democrats have managed to be on the wrong side of that debate on almost every issue. They wrongly think we can contain Islamic Jihad by making concessions to thuggish dictators, but when it comes to a genocide that happened 100 years ago, idealism is more important than any impact their stance has on current world affairs. Ludicrous.

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