OT: Turkish Support for Operations in Iraq

[Guest guest]

Hi y'all,

 

I've been quiet on this subject .. and intend to remain quiet because I

see no purpose in massaging an issue when the die is cast and the arrow

has left the bow ... sitting quiet has advantages and avoids inflaming

passions. Emotions are not a part of military planning .. they are for

politicians.

 

But .. I'm getting a few off-line posts asking about what appears to be

waivering support from Turkey. So I wanna clarify that. Turkey, like

America, is a country. Then we have the Turkish public, the government

in charge .. and the military establishment.

 

The Public .. those I know anyway .. don't give a crap one way of the

other .. but they have lost confidence in the newly elected moderate

Moslem government cause their attempts to please everybody is resulting

in indecision and loss of respect. Prime Minster Abdullah Gul (really a

good man in my opinion) is flying all over the Middle East in a wasted

attempt to seek a solution through " peaceful democracy. " Point is that

everybody knows he is posturing .. putting on a show .. trying to build

credibility with the Islamists of the Middle East even though he knows

he is peeing in the wind. When asked for recommendations, Gul, like all

the others, stands there with his tongue hanging out.

 

Fact is .. Turkey will experience the same results if they do or do not

give America all the support requested .. and everybody knows this fact.

Still, the games go on.

 

The Military .. The government tried to push the decision off on the

Turkish military. All the folks watched this .. twas entertainment of

the week .. prime time. The military told the government they were not

politicians, were subordinate to civilian control, and would wait till

they got their marching orders. Meantime, the military has continued

their planning with American military forces and there are both Turkish

and US Military folks in northern Iraq .. has been for many months now.

Good that the professional military does not sit on their butt and wait

for unprofessional civilian governments to play childrens political or

one-upmanship games in hopes of looking better come next election.

 

Saturday, a peace rally was schedled in town. Small it was too. Of

course, the Iraqis have lots of paid agents whose mission is to try to

influence public opinion. And here in Turkey, with economic conditions

being sorta down and level of ignorance being sorta up, its not all that

hard to hire some folks to rally against whatever you want them to.

 

Afore it kicked off, I asked one dude in John Lennon glasses why he was

protesting war in Iraq. Dude said cause war is not good. I waited a

couple of seconds .. thinking he was gonna continue .. but that was it.

Dude done blown all his ammo. I asked him if he was a student .. nope!

Frigging hotel doorman but he always wanted to be a student. ;-p

 

Y'all keep smiling, Butch