Turks Seek Control Over Shield -- Wall Street Journal
Prime Minister Increases Conditions, Says NATO Plan Needs Local Commander.
ISTANBUL—Turkey said it would seek a leading role in a North Atlantic Treaty Organization missile-defense shield if it is to agree to host the system's radars, ratcheting up its conditions days before a key alliance meeting.
Turkey would demand that NATO assign a Turkish commander to oversee the shield, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday. "Especially if this is to be placed on our soil, [command] definitely should be given to us—otherwise it is not possible to accept," Mr. Erdogan told journalists at Istanbul's Ataturk airport on Monday, according to Anadolu Ajansi, Turkey's state-funded news agency.
Read more ....
My Comment: This political positioning by Turkey on the missile shield reminds me of the behavior that they exhibited before the 2003 Iraq war. After intense negotiations on using Turkey as a launching pad for the U.S. 4th Division to enter Iraq from the north .... the Turks decided (at the last moment) not to give permission, thereby putting an unexpected monkey wrench into U.S. war plans and operations.
Seven years later .... and I now see the same tactics and behavior. Bottom line .... Turkey feels closer to Iran than to Europe, and they do not want such a defensive weapon system on their soil because they know that it will be directed at only one country, and that country is Iran. By putting and advancing conditions that they know will be unacceptable to the West .... they are now laying the groundwork not only for a rejection of the missile shield, but to also gain a significant political win in front of the Muslim World and key Middle Eastern countries.
1 comment:
Bugger Turkey. They really did us brown in '02. Of course, we also did ourselves by not rolling up Iraq back in Gulf War I. Still, are they members of Nato? Even DeGualle France is and was a more positive member than Turkey for the last eight years.
Post a Comment