Turkish conscripts likely to be least willing of coalition

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1016/p07s02-woeu.html

ISTANBUL – Turks were already skeptical of their leaders' decision last week to allow troops to be sent to neighboring Iraq in line with US pleas for backup.

But following a car bomb attack outside the Turkish embassy in Baghdad Tuesday, many are growing more leery of letting Turkish troops get bogged down in a violent quagmire - and thrown into a job which they may be unprepared to handle.

Unlike the US and Britain, Turkey makes military service compulsory for all men. Given that well over 90 percent of Turks opposed the US-launched war against Iraq, the young conscripts heading to Iraq's volatile "Sunni Triangle" may be less motivated additions to the coalition of the willing.

"You cannot send compulsory, conscripted soldiers outside your national territory," says Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Riza Kocukoglu, who served for 43 years in the military before joining the staff of Istanbul's Yeditepe University. "Even the American and British soldiers there are very demoralized."

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[saigon68]

1. OOOh this sounds like Fun

Turkish Conscripts---- in a coalition of Mercenaries------ in a country where part of the population (The Kurds) hate you like SATAN.

Draftees, make lousy soldiers when they are sent to fight a war without a purpose. They are some of the best when called on to defend the motherland, however, if properly led.

This will be a massacre and clusterfuck, in northern Iraq rolled into one. The draftees will undoubtedly commit massacres and will not be motivated except for fear of punishment. Warm bodies thrown into the meatgrinder

[Maine-i-acs]

2. Keep the Quagmire references coming.

Reality will set in sooner or later. Iraq was a mistake based on made-up non-evidence. Get an exit strategy on the fast track and empty Halliburton's pockets. Let a free Iraq sell their own oil. When it's theirs they will probably monitor the pipelines a little more closely.

[EX-CONservative]

3. Turkey has it's own problems...

They have a potential Kurdish guerrilla war on their hands. The Kurds are the people of the southern part of Turkey. They aren't allowed to speak their language and are persecuted for living their culture.

The Kurdish guerillas gave Turkey some kind of deadline on December 1st to improve their condition or face war. The Kurds reportedly have deployed guerillas to the interior, including big cities. This could turn ugly.

I despise we are forcing the BRITISH-created "nation" of Iraq together for our selfish purposes. They wanna split off into a Kurdish north a Sunni center and the Shi`ite lower half. They have a right to persue their desires...