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| Iraq |
| Historical Confession |
| 2003-03-21 |
| Former Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis referred to the financial aid shock and said, ''we thought that the United States needed our assistance and made a serious mistake. It was revealed that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government made a strategic mistake during the negotiations with the United States.'' Yakis, who played an active role at negotiations with the United States, noted, ''we did not believe that the United States had had the Plan B. We thought that the United States needed Turkey to open the northern front.'' We ALWAYS have a Plan B. Sucks to be wrong, doesn't it? |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #10 Murat's busy, I'm sure. He'll be by soon enough. I think he's a straight shooter most of the time, although sometimes we may disagree on what the target should be, and have to dive for cover, cursing, the occasional times he shoots wild. 11A5S is right: I think I read the same article he did. This guy was Nasser's equivalent of Johnny von Neumann or Henry Kissinger: a deep, strategic thinker capable of seeing the facts and avoiding being distracted or deceived by the propaganda. He had his own TV show where he was openly critical of many Arab governments, including his own, and the soldiers were taking notes, not arresting him. For a sit-and-talk show, his viewership numbers were consistenly at the top. Probably Dallas and Baywatch had better ratings. He openly poo-pooed the idea of the United states being a threat to other nations via its nuclear weapons, "These are the people who invented the think tank! They KNOW how to think about these sorts of things!" was the money quote I remember. He said it didn't matter if the American People elected a kook to the White House, since the government always made sure they had bright people around the President to give him advice. If he'd said "pervert" instead, he'd have been a damn prophet, IMHO. He probably was the only Arab who really understood the US of A. I believe he's dead now. If Allah was just, he's enjoying 144 virgins at this moment... |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-03-21 12:13:44 |
| #9 I always cracks me up when I hear some ___ [fill in the blank for nationality] spout off about how clueless and ignorant we yankees are. We have no culture, no history, we don't play chess, and we conduct most of our foreign policy out in the open. Yet in the end, we always kick their asses! You'd think they'd have wised up by now. There was a good article a few months back from some Egyptian intellectual who finally got it. I'm too lazy to hunt it down, but the thrust of it was that the Americans are better at this stuff than us. They just seem clueless because we don't understand their methodology, not because of any actual cluelessness. As long as Chirac, the Russians, the Turks, and all of the others fail to grasp this, the Republic is safe. God Bless America. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2003-03-21 10:55:03 |
| #8 Come on, Murat. No ducking this one. |
| Posted by: Tom 2003-03-21 10:52:00 |
| #7 This will go down in Turkish history as "The Great Screwup." |
| Posted by: Matt 2003-03-21 10:23:37 |
| #6 This seems just beyond stupid on the Turks part. Hey Murat, what's your take - is your government really that naive?!? |
| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2003-03-21 09:47:39 |
| #5 This is surreal - the Turks didn't think the US had a plan B? They were planning a war for petes sakes! - of COURSE they had plan B (C,D ...) Have the Turks never heard of SIOP (they're probably in there somewhere)? Never seen 'Wargames'? sheesh - talk about stupid... |
| Posted by: Tony 2003-03-21 09:41:04 |
| #4 Gotta go alittle light on the turks, it being the closest model of democracy in a Muslim country we have seen. They have helped in the past and we have to work with them dealing with the kurds too, so we need to keep them on our side. But with that being said, the $15 Billion they left on the table has gotta hurt, and our 3 new Airbase facilities we will set up in the former No Fly's will do to the Turkish airbases what Newark Airport did to JFK and LaGuardia... make them less relevant. Heck, we will now be to do what Osama has wanted all along... Get our airbases off of "Sacred Saudi Sand". News Flash: the Arab street will hate that arrangement to. Just can't seem to please um' |
| Posted by: Capsu78 2003-03-21 09:40:35 |
| #3 ha ha! sweet ain't it, to get it in black and white like that? |
| Posted by: anon1 2003-03-21 08:56:07 |
| #2 apparently the French and Russians didn't think so either. I'm suspecting that's why they were so smug after we didn't get UN approval, thinking we'd be forced to back down and have to walk away humiliated. The Turks actions were downright treacherous. They strung us along, pretending they WOULD cooperate and thus delaying us past March 5th, thinking we'd run out of time due to weather and be forced to retreat with our tails between our legs. We asked the multi-billion dollar question and they got it wrong. |
| Posted by: becky 2003-03-21 08:55:54 |
| #1 We have a Plan K, too. Guess what the "K" stands for? |
| Posted by: jrosevear 2003-03-21 08:44:03 |