“They have us over the proverbial barrel, we need to use their territory. It’s not cowering in fear, no fear involved.”
Actually, it is fear. They need our support far more than we need theirs.
This is so typical of our wimpy government — placate other governments at the expense of doing the right thing.
I don’t think it wise to invade Turkey. As they did with the 4th ID, when they refused to let us use the access, you have to decide whether you are going to comply with other country’s wishes or not. When dealing with other sovereign nations, you have to comply.
Maybe we weren’t stern enough, who knows, I wasn’t there. But fear is not an issue. Turkey has been a stalwart ally throughout the cold war, allowing NATO bombers to use their territory. They were also allowing us to use their bases to enforce the Iraq no-fly zones. It’s all a game of negotiation, give and take — I don’t think our state department is very good at it, we seem to be doing mostly give and little take.