[UncleSamUSA]

The Turkish army's desire to move into Iraq has nothing whatever to do with ending Saddam Hussein's bloody reign in Baghdad, so the general's comment has no relevance whatsoever to the current tiff with the US.

Turkey wanted to frustrate the US-UK desire to topple Saddam, and then wanted to add to the chaos by moving into Turkey to crush the Kurds and who knows even seizing the oil fields, both against the wishes of the coalition. So far they have held off, mainly because they evidently do not want a complete and irrevocable rift with the US and because they would not relish having to force Tommy Franks to send US troops up north with the express mission of repulsing the Turks.

I have said before and I will say again: The Turks have damaged us Militarily in the Iraq war even more than the French have damaged us diplomatically, and that is saying quite a lot.

[AntiGuv]

So far they have held off, mainly because they evidently do not want a complete and irrevocable rift with the US and because they would not relish having to force Tommy Franks to send US troops up north with the express mission of repulsing the Turks.

No, it wouldn't appear to have any great relation to either of those factors. If Turkey wished to prevent a rift with the U.S., then they would've approved the deployment to begin with. As for the second point, there's no chance we'd have a military conflict with Turkey under any foreseeable circumstance (including their incursion into northern Iraq) and so that's irrelevant.

It's the European Union tying future accession talks & monetary assistance to the Turkish military staying out of the Kurdish zones that has so far circumvented their clear desires.

[a_Turk]

Whatever..

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

To say the Turks were worst to us than the French is wrong. IMHO

But what the Turks did, is close to being as bad. Pretty dang close.

Yes, we will still have relations with them, but the long standing respect and TRUST we shared is gone, at least for us it is. Sadly they joined the ranks of the French and the Germans. I would never have thought it.

The Turks should have considered their alleged "good friend America" in her time of need.

Actions speak louder than words.

Our ships sat in the ports for what seemed an eternity. And every time a soldier dies or is captured, I feel angst towards the people I once called our "friend".