Turkey says NO to US troop deployments

[Sean Smith]

Sour grapes aside, we may actually be better off NOT staging our troops in Turkey. Why?

For one thing, Turkey isn't our secular ally anymore. The Turks went and elected the Islamic Fruit Loop Party into power, and for once the Army didn't stage a coup to prevent it. With public opinion totally against any U.S. invasion of Iraq from their country, getting the current government to let us in anyway would probably cause widespread domestic instability. Enough to overthrow the government and install an Ayatollah? Probably not. But the current political trends in Turkey aren't pretty, and are starting to smell Iranian. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is spinning in his grave.

For another, it would spell almost certain escalation of the Turk-Kurd conflict that is just starting to fizzle out in Turkey itself. The last thing anybody in their right minds wants is Turks in the Kurdish areas of Iraq. Given their domestic policies, they'd probably give the Kurds the treatment they gave Armenia, insofar as they thought they could get away with it.

My suspicion is that the "Turkish Option" was only meant to be a bit of a distraction, along the lines of the Marines at sea that never attacked in 1991.

 

[MPFreeman]

That's too bad about the turks. They are some bad hombres concerning military matters.

 

[Mike Irwin]

OK, no problem.

Discontinue ALL U.S. aide. Not just the new stuff that the US agreed to, but ALL of it.

 

[Hkmp5sd]

Ever consider the whole thing might be a little deception for Saddam? Instead of placing troops on the border with Turkey and fortifying his positions, he now thinks he is safe and can move the troops to the south. The US forces are aboard ship off the coast and can easily and rapidly be moved to their jump-off point at the Turkey-Iraq border. A lot faster than Saddam can redeploy his troops there once the shooting starts.

On the other hand, if there is no war, Turkey can tell the other Islamic nations they didn't bow to US pressure and stood firm with their muslem brothers. Very important considering NATO has already left them hanging.

 

[Dannyboy]

Turkey's economy took a big, huge dump today. The stock market dropped 13% and their currency dropped quite a bit, as well. I can't say that I have any sympathy.