[hermit22]

You guys are missing another important detail about Turkey: a recent poll showed that 94% of the population were opposed to a war with Iraq. So, really, if we're trying to promote democracy, we should be proud of this demonstration of it - not so proud that its failure was this close, but grateful that the vote reflected the will of the people.

There's also the question of the Kurds. There's been a Kurdish Revolution in Southeastern Turkey for decades, and I'm sure we all know about the de facto Kurdistan in Northern Iraq. The Turks hate the Kurds, and, in fact, don't believe they exist. In thier mind, Kurds are simply Turks who lost their heritage. So one of the things that the Americans were so heavy-handed about in the negotiations was the threat that America would support a Kurdistan in Northern Iraq. This would almost definately destabilize Southern Turkey and could lead to the potential of a future conflict between this new state and Turkey.

In addition, Turkey's economy took a direct hit of US$90B during the first Gulf War. All the talk about the Turks trying to extort money out of us is missing that little detail - and the fact that the country has been in a great depression since 1997.

So I hope that clears up a bit of the talk about Turkey. Whoever said that there would be more of a chance of chem/bio weapons being used now is probably accurate, because the winds sweep down off of the mountains, and southwest from Baghdad - so they can use these weapons without the wind shifting into Baghdad. And there wouldn't be any troops from the North to flank them on it.

(I know I've been gone for a while, but that's because I've spent too much time reading about stuff like this.)