Meet your new Turkish overlord

The US wanted them to "help"
with the occupation

This was posted in comments and is too good to stay there

Finally someone is talking Turkey!

This is the biggest overlooked issue of the war. I visited Turkey over the summer and had dozens of conversations with Turkish citizens, including three Kurds.

Amazingly, the opinions I heard about Kurdistan were completely unanimous, even from the Kurds.

First, when I asked what they thought Turkey would do if a Kurdish state were created.
Answer: Turkey would invade it immediately. I then asked what would happen if the US backed the Kurds. Answer: Then we would fight the Americans and it would be a very, very brutal war.

I asked why the issue was so important. Answer: A Kurdistan would destabilize the Kurdish portion of Turkey, which would jeopardize Turkey's control over the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

They added that water is Turkey's most valuable resource. One even said: "Iraq has oil, but we have water. The oil will run out, but the water will not. Besides, you can't drink oil, anyway."

I asked about how a Turkish invasion would affect their EU bid. Answer: Who cares? They will never let us join, anyway. I asked about how an invasion would affect relations with the US.

Answer: You Americans are our friends and greatest ally, but we cannot sacrifice our country for that friendship. I never asked anyone about the possibility of losing American arms sales, but one of the Kurds I talked offers some inight on this. He was a fighter pilot in the Turkish Air Force. He flew a fighter plane that was made in China. Given their multiple sources for military equipment, I doubt that they would be concerned about losing their American source.

Unfortunately, I did not talk to any government officials, but the unimous consent of the people I talked to leads me to believe that the government will reflect their views, if only more diplomatically. Turkey is a democracy, after all. All I can say, is that the views of the Turkish people were quite chilling and do not bode well for the future of the region.

fostert777

posted by Steve @ 12:41:00 AM