The Forgotten Photos

Turkish Armed Forces Web Site ^ | Pretty recent | The General Staff

[Kenny Bunk]

Dog, Iraq is a composite state, something like the former Yugoslavia. What is wrong with giving the Kurds a Confederated Semi-Autonomous Region? Hell, I'd even take a slice from Iran for it, if I thought we could get away with it. If then they misbehaved, who but Jane Fonda would even care if the Turks had to slap'em around a little bit to keep them in it?

Granted, the Kurds are definitely not a Western-Civilization-Compatible people. However, neither were the Chiricahua Apaches, and even they got a reservation to call home. Ditto treatment for the Albanians. Better bloody, destructive tribespeople be placed in circumstances where the UN can watch(and feed)them, for at least as long as it takes them to figure out how to illegally immigrate to LA.

We (and our wonderful allies, the kind and gentle Turks,) would also have a much better chance of confining their primitive hostilities by keeping them in border-defined homelands. The alternative is having these lawless Clymers roam loose through Europe and the Middle East, wreaking havoc wherever they go.

[Dog Gone]

I think we're going to have enough trouble installing a government in Iraq without creating another new nation at the same time. I don't think we're interested in putting a hostile neighbor, one with territorial designs, on the border of a NATO ally.

Now, Turkey may have screwed the pooch with their vote last Saturday. We may, in fact, agree to Kurdish provinces in federated Iraq that have more autonomy than Turkey would like. That will be determined later.

[Kenny Bunk]

My solution to Iraq is to break it up and erase its name.

This is a splendid opportunity to undo British Foreign Office line drawing of 1916 and reward our friends and punish our enemies. Jordan gets a big slice with an oil field. Turkey can have a slice (no pun intended) with oil. The Kurds can have a reservation with oil. The Saudis can extend their Eastern Province, Kuwait can have a defensible border. Iraq becomes Mesopotamia, capital Baghdad. Hell, while we're at it, we could even set up a new Palestine and pay those Clymers to homestead it.

May the "Iraq" concept was a mistake. Great time to sort it out. If the Iranians get frisky, we can take them out of the oil business in a heartbeat. Something tells me the Russkis would love a warm-water port and some more oil.

[Dog Gone]

That's somewhat less preferable than a united democratic Iraq (which conveniently has some permanent US bases near the Iranian border). What the region needs is some civilization and western influence.

[montag813]

The *Kurds* will be shafted by US support for their terrorist leaders.. Hey, weren't you a German just a few weeks ago? Wonderful things those hyphens... Sag mal, schaemst du dich nicht?

Huh? You lost me there.

[PatrioticAmerican]

"This was going to be our nations' chance to get much closer"

Close with Turkey seems an impossible task. I lived there in the early 70's and some loved us, but most wanted to kill us. The best thing for the US would be for us to come home from around the world and let the nations of the world defend themselves from one another. I couldn't give a damn the outcome. Screw with the US, and we should simply nuke your ass off the planet. Not one US soldier should die if a nuke can do the job permanently.

I'm tired of the UN patti-cake going on.

[xm177e2]

The PKK is an evil Marxist terrorist organization. The KDP and PUK are very different. They may have at times supported the much-larger PKK, but they aren't like that group.

[Trickyguy]

Damn right! It was the Turkish genocide of Armenians that led Hitler to believe he could do what he wanted. Turkey hardly has cause to complain about anything considering its past history.

[a_Turk]

>> They may have at times supported the much-larger PKK, but they aren't like that group.

Sorry.. The KDP still uses the PKK. Main reason for threatening Turkish security forces. "Family" ties between KDP leader, who is from a long line of feudal landlords, and elements in the PKK structure.

Too bad.

The Al-Qaeda may have been bad, but the Taliban really isn't like that. /sarcasm off

[xm177e2]

The PUK is much better than the KDP, that much I'll grant. The PUK has a little democratic mini-state in northern Iraq; if there is going to be a Kurdish state, or autonomous region, or whatever, it's the PUKies who are going to run it, not the PKK.

[Happy2BMe]

RESIST ANGLO-U.S. AGRESSION

Turkey prepares to stake claim in Iraq's oil fields - (It's the oil, stupid.)

Top Turkish general fears Kurds will be new U.S. ally vs. Iraq

Polls show as much as 94 percent of the Muslim-dominated Turkish public opposes a war with Iraq.

Turkey's paliment dealt a stunning blow to U.S. war planning Saturday by voting against a bill allowing in American combat troops to open a northern front against Iraq. Before the vote, 50,000 Turks staged an anti-war rally near parliment as 4,000 police stood guard.

They chanted "No to War" and "We dont want to be America's soldiers." Some carried banners that read: The people will stop this war." Hundreds of Turks celebrated in the streets of central Ankara, shouting anti-U.S. slogans.

"We are all Iraqis . . We ill not kill, we will not die," they chanted. They also accused the Islamic-rooted Justice party of "collaborating with Washinton.

Washington had been so sure of winning approval from close ally and NATO member Turkey, that ships carrying U.S. tanks are waiting off Turkeys' coast for deployment and the U.S. military has thousands of tons of military equipment ready to unload at the southern Turksih port of Iskenderun.

For weeks, the Bush administration had been pressing Turkey to agree to a possible northern front, which would split Saddam Hussein's army between the north and the south, likely making a war shorter and less bloody.

The motion would have empowered Turkey's gobernment to authorize the basing of up to 62,000 troops, 255 warplanes, and 65 helicopters. In exchange, Washington promised $15 billion in loans and grants to cushion the Turkish economy from impact of war.

Turkey eyes northern Iraqi oil

Turkey prepares to stake claim in Iraq's oil fields

Turkey eyes Iraqi oil fields in midst of war rumbling.

Iraqi oil fields will be prime target.

Kurdish army will try to capture nearby oil-rich areas in case of war.

Justice Looms for Saddam, Cronies

An ‘Iraq winter’ haunts Turkey

Iraqi Kurds Eye Oil Revenue Dreams

Turkey weighs economic, political costs of a Gulf war

Turkey points its N. Iraq military deployment at… the Kurds

U.S. Envoy: Turkish Troops Would Be Under Coalition Command if They Go Into Iraq

Kirkuk in The Modern Times

Turkey also wants U.S. troops to take over the Kirkuk and Mosul oil fields.

Turkey and Iran eye post-Saddam Iraq as fog of war thickens

An invitation to mayhem Potential for Turk-Kurd conflict after Saddam

[JoeFromSidney]

Hopefully Turkey will now be kicked out of NATO and isolated. They can also kiss their dreams goodbye of ever joining Christian EU. This latter must never, ever come to pass or there will be hell to pay

When I was a visiting professor in Turkey I used to tell my Turkish friends not to worry about getting into the EU. In fifty years, Turkey and Ireland will be able to split Europe between them. They're the only two countries in the area that are replacing themselves. The rest are going down the population drain: reproductive rates well below 2.0.