U.S. Pressure for Help in Iraq May Have Made Turkey a Terror Target

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGACRF5YBND.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - By leaning on Turkey to be more of a help in Iraq, the United States inadvertently may have helped to nudge its Muslim NATO ally into the cross hairs of Islamic militants.

Many experts say the United States bears some blame for the circumstance in which Turkey now finds itself: targeted by al-Qaida and other groups bent on destabilizing the country.

The Bush administration was lackluster in its efforts at public diplomacy at the dawn of the anti-terrorism campaign, then expected the government in Ankara to withstand, on its own, pressure over the Iraq war from the two concepts, Islam and the West, that it straddles.

Now, in order to help Turkey fend off more terrorist attacks, the United States is going to have to lower its expectations with regard to Turkey's help in Iraq and quickly wipe away any anti-Muslim perceptions about the battle against terror.

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[Robb]

1. Gee, do you suppose?

AP breaking: "eating french fries may have made fingers greasy". :eyes:

[54anickel]

2. Here's a lesson for Shrub

"Diplomacy, he notes, is "much bigger than just discussions between the political and business elites of the countries involved. ... It also involves convincing a large number of people - the public - that appropriate policies are being followed that serve everyone's interest."

Read somewhere here that Shrub called on his way home from the Brit Gala to offer help to Turkey to fight Terrorism. Oh yeah. I'm sure their answer is please, no, stay away!! Probably holding up a cross at arms length like they do in the vampire movies.

[will work 4 food]

3. the CIA

How bout the CIA, or some other No Such Agency, bombed Turkey, to get Turkey riled up enough to commit troops.

[Paschall]

4. Nah. Riled up or not...

...Turkish opinion is too strongly divided over allying the country with Shrub's war on a fellow Muslim nation. Besides average Iraqis still remember the Ottoman Empire and don't want Turkish troops on Iraqi soil.

Not to mention that deployment of troops in Iraq would likely be extremely risky for the moderate "Islamist" party in power if--as could be expected--it triggered a violent reaction from Turkish Kurds.

You can bet that the EU is putting pressure on Turkey to keep its cool, because Turkish involvement would bring the violence all that much closer to/onto the Continent, particularly given the large enclaves of Turkish immigrants in Europe, notably Germany.

No, the bombings were the work of genuine terrorists. See Robert Fisk's excellent analysis of this situation on this thread.