New Turkish PM Dashes US Hopes of Swift Troop Move

Reuters | 3/15/03 | Daren Butler

[LaGrone]

Does anyone get the feeling Turkey is heading South (Not in the literal sense; excuse the pun)? Do they have radical fundamentalists there in their population? Why are they against the war so much? Their economy is in the tank anyway. Seems the regime change could only help the people there.

But there is that Muslim thing isn't there. Hmmmm

[Gore_ War_ Vet]

Turkey do Not cross Your border into Iraq

You don't think Turkey should attack Iraq?

[mystery-ak]

Well, what can I say....what a waste, not using the 4th ID's hi-tech equipment....

[ez]

this is potentially a hell of a lot more serious than inconveniencing our battle plans. turkey -- you can take this to the bank -- plans to end up owning the northern iraqi oilfields.

we're gonna be shooting at turks before this thing is over.

I agree that is a real possibility. Turkey is acting like it intends to secure Northern Iraq alone. They probably feel we cannot muster sufficient forces there to oppose them, but we could seriously augment Kurdish forces if necessary.

[Dog Gone]

Zalmay Khalilzad delivered a message to Turkey yesterday warning them to stay out of Iraq. We'll see if they listened.

[BullDog108]

You don't think Turkey should attack Iraq?

In a word, NO!

They are going for the oilfields, and will have to fight the Kurds for them. 70,000 Kurds are allied with US forces. Turkey is stepping in some deep doo-doo.

[First_Salute]

Turkey is our very good ally. It is their right as a sovereign nation to determine how and when they may wish to participate as an ally.

There is quite a lot that they have sacrificed for us; more than the American public has ever appreciated.

[First_Salute]

Bump.

[First_Salute]

So along comes the situation where our guys in Northern Iraq are in trouble, and the Turks come to our rescue. "Funny" how that kind of thing happens.

[gulfcoast6]

Line up the troops, start heading for the border, what they gonna do, attack us?

[EGPWS]

Line up the troops, start heading for the border, what they gonna do, attack us?

I remember about 12 years ago a sovereign nation had that very same attitude and did just that to another sovereign nation. Attack us? If a foreign nation did that very same thing here in the U.S. we sure would put up a fight! I trust the Turks would do the same.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Forget Turkey.

Not so easy.

We'd better be prepared to take on Turkey and Iran at the same time. I think Israel can handle Egypt and Syria.

I am now concerned about the alliances that certain European and Euro-Asian countries would make in this situation.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Ships should have left two weeks ago

Well, you know, the Turkish coast, where the ships were disembarking from, is a very short distance, from Haifa, which is a very short distance from Jordan, which borders Iraq on the west. It's a flat run on nice firm desert from there into northern Iraq. We, and the other countries involved, wouldn't want to make a big show of it for many reasons...but if we'd been dribbling a ship or two here and there south and off-loading them at night...perhaps the long trip around to already over-loaded Kuwait wouldn't be necessary.

[uncbob]

Well, you know, the Turkish coast, where the ships were disembarking from, is a very short distance, from Haifa

NO WAY the administration even goes close to having a remote Israeli connection

[uncbob]

Turkey is our very good ally. It is their right as a sovereign nation to determine how and when they may wish to participate as an ally.

May be true
BUT For some reason the USA was led to believe they would cooperate and we made our plans and sent our ships to sea accordingly Either our state dept screwed up BIG TIME or Turkey SHAFTED us after the fact

[Libertina]

Our own Clintoon holdovers in the State Department (with help from the complicit media) were in the background (BIG time) working to bungle this... "Our list of allies grows thin." This requires prayer, people.

[Mister Baredog]

Turkey is our very good ally.

Turkey WAS our very good ally.

More US soldiers will die because of their decisions. That is not an act of an ally. That is an act of a new, naive, short sighted and mistaken government. This is the biggest request we have made of them, and we were willing to pay BIG BUCKS for the privledge. It's all very unseemly, too bad.

[Semper Paratus]

Behind the scenes France is pulling out all the stops against us.

Just heard former Ambassador Ginsberg on Fox say the French actions of late have been that of Iraq's lawyer and they are risking everything to keed Sadaam in power.

[Mister Baredog]

Behind the scenes France is pulling out all the stops against us

BOYCOTT ALL THINGS FRENCH

[Mister Magoo]

In most circumstances, I would be grevely concerned, but here I am not. Saddam has withdrawn the bulk of his quality units into Baghdad in any event. There's really no necessity for a second front, except that it would shorten the time to reach Baghdad by a day or two. Arabs are miserable, ill-disciplined soldiers, the world's worst.