Replies

Let's not get too down on Turkey. Turkey has to live next to Iraq, and they are concerned about what we're going to do in their neighborhood. After the last gulf war, over a million refugees flooded into Turkey from Iraq, costing Turkey billions to deal with them. Turkey is not out of line to ask for money to deal with the problems that may come from our assault on Iraq.

Most likely, in my opinion, Turkey refused access to our troops because Turkey intends to grab northern Iraq when we move in from the south. We won't be able to stop them in time if our troops are not in Turkey. They will do this to quell the Kurds who have caused the Turks innumerable problems in the past, to take back Turkish territory seized by Britain after WWI, and to grab oil wells. The Turks have not denied that they may go into Iraq themselves.

Turkey has been a reliable ally since the Korean conflict, and I can tell you from having been in Turkey that the Turks are fundamentally friendly to America. The Turks aren't slapping us in the face, they are simply covering their butts and making sure that a hostile Kurdish nation doesn't appear and start agitating to break off southeastern Turkey.

Additionally, we don't need Turkey's airspace or land to beat the tar out of the ragheads in Iraq. This coming war will take about one or two days at the most, with most of the work figuring out what to do with all the prisoners.

Pragmatist

We need to pull ALL our troops and stop ALL aid dollars to Turkey!

Uh, no we don't. We need to keep Turkey as an ally. Many in the Turkish government already regret the Parliament's decision, and I can hardly blame the public for being against a war. The last one overwhelmed them with refugees and damaged their economy.

I'm glad to see the aid package has been pulled, and it's unfortunate they left our troops hung out to dry, but I do hope we'll get past this and keep good relations with our long-time ally.