Posted on 03/15/2003 6:59:25 AM PST by AntiGuv
You are correct. The $ Aid offer was real, concrete and immediate. However, Washington's promise not to establish an independent Kurdistan has to be taken a bit more cautiously. Future US administrations might find such a promise objectionable or inconvenient, while the Turks now see an alternate opportunity to shape their own destiny. The stakes for us are merely tactical, but for Ankara this is a strategic reshaping of its border with the bulk of the Muslim world. If I were them, I wouldn't buy the promise if I had a choice.
Hmmmmm... The exact same argument can be made against the United States. But we aren't buying it, and neither are the Turks. It is on their border, after all.
Ah, but Ankara might place the shoe on the other foot. If the Turks are first to take the northern Iraqi oil fields in force, the fait accompli might be left to Washington. Would we attack our sole Muslim ally and NATO partner to force them out? Turkey holds a very interesting hand in this game.
Your sentences correctly state the situation.
Once Disarmed, Iraq is no threat to the USA and the new reality must be acceptable to the neighbors. An enlarged turkey may well be the best solution. Kurds together within a Turkish democracy may well be better than Kurds flailing within a failed democratic state unable to survive on its own.
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