posted on November 4, 2002 03:01:55 PM new
Uh-oh...may be right. Time will tell.
This subject mentioned in the WSJ op-ed:
A few jitters are perhaps in order[about this change], but this could turn out to be very good news. Reuters reported before the election that the party's leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, "pledged his party would maintain Turkey's pro-Western stance." Said Erdogan: "AKP is ready to take responsibility to build up the political will to accelerate the European Union entry process and to strengthen the integration of our economy with the world economy and the implementation of the economic programme."
Turkey has long stood out in the Muslim world for its embrace of Western modernity and, more recently, democracy. Central to the country's progress has been the suppression of Muslim influences in politics. If the AKP proves to be as moderate as advertised, it could bode well for democratic reform elsewhere in the Muslim world.
posted on November 4, 2002 03:27:28 PM new
And at the same time, Suadi Arabia - our Staunch Ally Who Funded The World Trade Center Bombing refused to allow Bush to beat up Saddam from Arabian air space or territory. I concur that Turkey will follow suit. The Islamic world is showing a unified front to Bush's bulling tactics and with Bush making America go it alone, it won't be able to attack Iraq after all.
Also, I suspect, once Turkey has denied air space and land bases for the attack, Saddam will understand the Full-Go-Ahead and start to stall UN Inspecters or just halt the process altogether -- whatever he thinks that he can get away with.
posted on November 4, 2002 07:54:25 PM new
In the long run it may make it worse for Iraq to keep the US away. If they are prevented from delivering a large number of tactical weapons locally they have the option of delivering any number of strategic weapons ballisticaly.
