Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Snubbing Turkey--State Department missteps played a part in Saturday’s embarrassing vote.
National Review ^ | 3-3-03 | Joel Mowbray

Posted on 03/03/2003 8:04:12 AM PST by SJackson

The Turkish parliament's failure this weekend to approve the basing of U.S. troops made headlines around the world, but the unreported backstory is how officials at the U.S. State Department have their fingerprints all over the mess in Ankara. With the margin of defeat so narrow — a mere four votes shy of a simple majority — State's unfortunate diplomacy in the past few months likely made the difference.

Winning the support of Turkey for any Iraq invasion was the State Department's job and now many in the White House are wondering what went wrong. Turkey has been a reluctant, but willing, partner during four months of negotiations. Media reports, however, pegged Turkey as attempting to be bought off by the U.S. for supporting an Iraqi invasion. That was one of the key problems.

News accounts airing details of the supposedly secret negotiations made Turkey's leadership look driven almost solely by money. "The leaks made Turkey look like a prostitute," complains one Turkish official. Part of this anger stems from the fact that the leaks claiming Turkey was still shaking down the U.S. for more money continued even after the economic issues had been agreed upon and taken off the table.

While the source of leaks can never be known for certain, but officials at both State and the Pentagon insist that the leaks were part of a coordinated campaign by State to strong-arm Turkey. If so, the tactic backfired.

But the leaks were only part of the problem. People familiar with the political scene in Turkey — as much as 90 percent of the public opposes war with Iraq — knew for months before Saturday that the vote in the parliament would be tight. In an effort to build more support among the Turkish military, the Pentagon wanted to send a delegation to Turkey in November. State refused. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was adamant that the Pentagon not encroach on State's turf, and the military meeting was scuttled.

In fairness to the State Department, dealing with the Turkish leadership is not an easy task. Most of the members of the ruling Justice and Development Party lack the sophistication found in more seasoned governments. One Defense Department official who is an avid supporter of Turkey comments that Saturday's vote is a sign that it is "amateur hour" in the Turkish government. Further complicating matters, the top spot in the Turkish government is likely changing hands in a week, when the head of the Justice and Development Party, Tayyip Erdogan, becomes eligible for the prime-minister slot (which he will likely move into).

Erdogan supported the failed resolution, but changing leadership is a process that can take up to two weeks. Although some wire stories Sunday indicated that the Turkish parliament would not take up the resolution when it reconvenes Tuesday, Turkish officials insist that it could be voted on again this week. If that doesn't happen, though, the timetable could stretch out for an extra week or two as the new leadership is installed.

Discussions about a follow-up vote in parliament might have been moot if State had handled itself differently — in Iraq. According to a Turkish official, one of the items that members of the parliament were angriest about was the exclusion of Turkish-backed individuals from the leadership of the Iraqi opposition.

In a meeting Friday in Northern Iraq, six leaders were selected — including one backed by Iran and another who is popular with Saudi Arabia — but the leader of the group representing Iraq's sizeable Turkoman population was merely promised a position on some unspecified committee. The move puzzled many in the Bush administration. "State warmly embraced the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution (backed by Tehran) and went out of its way to keep Saudi Arabia happy, but then they decided to screw our ally," complains a Defense Department official.

It is unclear exactly how many votes were swayed by the previous day's snub in northern Iraq, but considering the resolution only failed by four votes out of 534 members present, State's actions there could have been the difference. Either way, it is a sore spot for many in the Bush administration — some of whom think the State Department angering Turkey was no accident. Notes a Defense Department official familiar with the Iraqi opposition groups: "Many top officials at State don't want to go to war in Iraq. State knew the politics of the situation, yet they excluded the group backed by Turkey right as the Turkish parliament was voting on the resolution. It makes you wonder: Is State trying to undermine the president?"

— Joel Mowbray is an NRO contributor and a Townhall.com columnist.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: powellwatch; turkey; usa; warlist
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160161-180 next last
To: seamole
Actually, our one ace in the hole with Islam is that the only reason it has so many adherants is that they are given the choice: become muslim or we shun you, take your stuff, or even kill you.

Once people are given a choice and we reach a point where it is LEGAL and SAFE to have even the concept of a Christian bookstore in downtown anywhere in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, etc, Islam will die of natural causes.

It's strength is in the ability to compell people to follow. Take away that issue and it collapses (I hope).
141 posted on 03/03/2003 3:51:16 PM PST by RobRoy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 137 | View Replies]

To: RobRoy
compell = compellll
142 posted on 03/03/2003 3:52:06 PM PST by RobRoy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 141 | View Replies]

To: Thud
Go ahead. Start the wheels. Grease the skids. Others will follow the precedent. And in the end the world will see total peace with only deep sea creatures alive. Maybe they'll evolve a better sapiens. Let's roll..
143 posted on 03/03/2003 3:54:24 PM PST by a_Turk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 140 | View Replies]

To: SJackson
Turkish rejection leaves US in quandary
144 posted on 03/03/2003 3:58:26 PM PST by Happy2BMe (HOLLYWOOD:Ask not what U can do for your country, ask what U can do for Iraq!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: a_Turk
They made it us or them. It will be them. Your country will be too close to the blind giant when it starts stomping, and without any claim on its gratitude.

Fortunately America is 12,000 miles upwind.

145 posted on 03/03/2003 4:03:29 PM PST by Thud
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 143 | View Replies]

To: Thud
Just as you were not safe from terror, you won't be safe from that. In the end everything just bleeds together.
146 posted on 03/03/2003 4:05:35 PM PST by a_Turk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 145 | View Replies]

To: Thud
Quite simply, I stand by my theory that some Albright leftovers had a hand in this. I hope that proof someday sees daylight to prove me right. In the mean time, they are friends so let's not burn bridges. I'm more concerned about the traitors in Mexico and Canada than the actions of a democratic nation like Turkey.
147 posted on 03/03/2003 5:19:00 PM PST by Beck_isright (going to war without the French is like duck hunting without an accordian)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 140 | View Replies]

To: Servant of the Nine
It is hard to get rid of individual government employees who are not political appointees. So the best approach would be to privatize most of the State Department. Layoff the government employees and contract out their jobs to the private and non-profit sector.
148 posted on 03/03/2003 5:30:16 PM PST by Edmund Burke
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: a_Turk
>Just as you were not safe from terror, you won't be safe
>from that. In the end everything just bleeds together.

Oh please!

Northern Iraq just became an American vital interest. Your government just showed that its interests and America's are incompatable.

Being the more powerful party, American interests in Northern Iraq will trump Turkey's.

Turkey will not get an apology from America. It will not get money from America. It will get nothing from America.

Allah is on the side of the bigger battalion, and Turkey isn't.

149 posted on 03/03/2003 5:44:40 PM PST by Dark Wing
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 146 | View Replies]

To: Beck_isright; a_Turk
I stand by my position that the State Department is notoriously an Arabist coven, the carrot of post-career cushy positions in Saudi-financed institutes is influential. The Turks are not Arabs, and as has been mentioned on this thread, form an unofficial alliance with the U.S. and Israel. The Arabists in the State Department take their cues from what pleases their masters, and plot accordingly. The fact that Arafat was the most frequent White House guest during Clinton's presidency was pleasing to them and they were glad to help Clinton in his quest for a legacy.

Obviously they feel otherwise about President Bush.

150 posted on 03/03/2003 5:51:25 PM PST by happygrl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 147 | View Replies]

To: Beck_isright; TigerLikesRooster; a_Turk; Dark Wing
Train wrecks are rarely the result of deliberate action but they happen. I can see this particular train wreck coming. It will be a Greek tragedy of the Delian variety:

For the Strong Do What They Will
And the Weak Endure What They Must

That's why I've been using an analogy of a blind giant who likes to tap dance. Subtlety has never been an American style. We go for brute force. The conscience which inhibited excesses is now merely a policy choice of the current administration rather than an enforceable requirement of the American people.

I fear what we will do to ourselves in our wrath, not what our enemies might do to us. Or we'll do to them.

The Turks are merely clueless by-standers who can't conceive of how things have changed and what will happen in their area. They, and the South Koreans will find out right quick if the North Koreans attack any of our aircraft.

151 posted on 03/03/2003 5:57:09 PM PST by Thud
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 147 | View Replies]

To: a_Turk
Thank you for posting this. Even though Powell was very cordial, our FM's delegation complained that their treatment by State was humiliating.

Asinine, this whole thing. Someone is trying to screw both of us...

I have been following your recent "rants" about the situation, and was setting myself to flame you...

Then I read this article, and your response. I am glad I listen to my instincts and did not flame away!

This has State's stench from Foggy Bottom all over it, and mark my words it will be traced back to some NWO-Type Clintonista/Mad Maddi Halfwit holdover...or some career Hack with an axe to grind agains GWB or the US in general.

We are pissed at the Muslim world in it's current state, but we should remember our Allies and alliances. We also will not let another Muja Hadeen situation get out of hand with the Kurds! If they can't play by Human rules, they will end up like the vermin at Tora Bora!

My gut tells me this pooch was screwed on purpose. We need to know who and why!

152 posted on 03/03/2003 5:59:26 PM PST by Itzlzha
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: a_Turk; 11B3; 2Trievers; alethia; AM2000; another cricket; ARCADIA; Archie Bunker on steroids; ...
Turk, hats off to your guys in the old country!

If only we had some chaps here who could act so forthrightly in their country's best interests.

Dude, it ain't rocket science. The Turks want an oil field (or two) of their very own. Kirkuk and Mosul would do nicely. And I totally concur! The entire faux-country, "Iraq," would, IMNSVHO, be better off as as a vilayet of Turkey than as a rump convenience of the defunct Foreign Office of the British Empire.

As far as our overly picturesque quondam allies, the Kurds go, well, so be it. They need clean drinking water and fast horses, and their bandit culture and all-too-numerous-progeny are secure. The Turks won't treat'em much worse than the Maine state police would. And one whole hell of a lot better than the deal they are getting from Saddam Hussein. (Let the Swedish Highway Patrol deal with the rest of them...."so how are you liking this diversity crap, Sven?")

Very mysterious of Allah to place these lucrative deposits under the posteriors of the Kurds. Have at them. These quaint and colorful natives are about as capable of running a country (or a church picnic) as Bruce Springsteen is of playing the guitar!

153 posted on 03/03/2003 6:36:42 PM PST by Kenny Bunk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]

To: happygrl
As a former "Arabist" who turned down a position in the State Department, I tend to disagree. There were many who wished to institute Kemalist reforms and teach the Turkish model throughout the Middle East. They were blocked by the Congress, who had the oil money pouring in as the camel herders turned billionaires were willing to foot the bill for privelage. Sadly, the State Department, as observed by every officer with a brain that I served with, is full of the socialist sympathizer types. They felt that we could find peace with everyone, including the USSR and the ChiComs. That fallacy is why Nixon went to China (among many other reasons) and why so much of our industry is relocating there today to take advantage of slave labor. If we gave Turkey 1/10th of the breaks we gave the communists in China, they would be a dynamo. But since the Eurocommies object, we went elsewhere and industrialized Mexico, Bangladesh and rural (now slave) China.
154 posted on 03/03/2003 6:47:41 PM PST by Beck_isright (going to war without the French is like duck hunting without an accordian)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 150 | View Replies]

To: Thud
I tend to think the North Koreans will get a display of the modern nuclear arsenal they only dreamed of. Sadly, even though many hundreds of thousands will die worldwide, it might be a lesson that needs to be re-learned.
155 posted on 03/03/2003 6:49:57 PM PST by Beck_isright (going to war without the French is like duck hunting without an accordian)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 151 | View Replies]

To: Beck_isright
You get no argument from me as far as the folly of our trade with China and the lost opportunities for other democracies such as Turkey and India.

The State Department has long had a reputation as being pro-Arab and anti-Israeli. If they are admireres of Turkey, there's little evidence of it. And it has been Congress who has blocked arms sales to Arab countries at times, such as the AWACS sales to Saudi Arabia, over the protestations of various administrations. I don't doubt that there are far-seeing officers in the State Department, but the Arabists are known to control it.

156 posted on 03/03/2003 7:05:09 PM PST by happygrl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 154 | View Replies]

To: k2blader
ping
157 posted on 03/03/2003 7:21:24 PM PST by a_Turk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DainBramage
ping
158 posted on 03/03/2003 7:28:12 PM PST by a_Turk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: yellowroses
ping
159 posted on 03/03/2003 7:30:20 PM PST by a_Turk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: a_Turk
Gosh I love a reasonable debate!
160 posted on 03/03/2003 7:37:06 PM PST by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote Life Support for others.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 159 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160161-180 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson