Turkey

[MM38084]

A predominantly Muslim republic that straddles Europe and Asia, Turkey has tried to navigate a careful path in the U.S.-led war against radical Islamic terrorists. Although Turkish forces joined in the 1991 Persian Gulf war, the Turks refused to allow U.S. forces to use Turkey as a northern base from which to invade Iraq this year. After an October bombing near the Turkish embassy in Baghdad, the Turks withdrew a commitment to send 10,000 troops to aid U.S. peacekeeping efforts in Iraq.

Yet the Al Qaeda terrorist network has evidently decided that Turkey will be a new front in its murderous campaign against all things civilized. Last weekend, bombers struck two synagogues, killing themselves and 23 innocent people. Thursday, as President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair jointly renewed their commitment to fight terrorism, trucks packed with explosives were detonated at a London-based bank and the British consulate in Istanbul, killing at least 27 people and injuring nearly 450.

This much should now be clear to the Turkish government: There is no neutral ground in this war. To the terrorists, there are no sidelines, just a global battlefield.

Turkey's position relative to Iraq is sensitive because of the large Kurdish population in northern Iraq that dreams of uniting with Kurds in southern Turkey to create an independent Kurdish nation. Turkey does not want to stoke those fires with a military presence in Iraq.

But the Turks can and should be more aggressive about uprooting the terrorist network that is clearly operating within their borders and is linked to the terrorists and guerrillas plaguing coalition forces in Iraq. Bush and Blair left little doubt Thursday about the resolve of their governments to rid the world of this kind of evil. Since Turkey has been brutally dragged into the fray, the Turks need to show some resolve of their own.

[reconeil]

Still, and unfortunately for The Turks, they too have found out the hard way that Arab/Muslim fanatics need no reasons and/or: "Stoke those fires with a military presence in Iraq",...to do what their Muslim Dictators order them to do. Basically, unless Turkey similarly finances, helps, arms or gives safe haven to the avowed terrorist murderers of infidels, as many Arab Nations do,...The Turks in general are just as good targets of opportunity for sneak attacks, as democratic Israel or any other democratic nations handy.

Hey,...doubt my logic? Then, just look at us. "9/11" came before The Iraq War,...NOT AFTER IT. Those bums just want to kill and/or do what most fanatical mercinaries usually get paid for doing. Only the pilots knew that they were going only on one way trips during: "9/11", since not all terrorists are suicidal nuts.

Besides, what else should The Turks have expected? Democracy is the most despised entity in a region which has been royally and/or religiously DICTATED for thousands of years. Hell, no dictator in his right mind would gleefully say: "We're going to have elections next year,...so that we might give this democracy bit a fair chance". Yeah, sure,...a dictator giving away HIS wealth, power and control to politicos. In your dreams.

Neil