Bush Shoots Self in Foot . . . Again

[Whaleboy]

elijah cares not

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Snotty
Find me a cheaper army and youve found me a better army. And what else is available locally? Isreal?

Yeah, put in that bunch of racist vandals. That would really make for goof public relations.

[Victor Galis]

Hey, the Serbs are sending about 1,000 troops of their own.

[Drake Tungsten]

This is great. If the Arabs really hate the Turks as much as you guys claim, they'll be too busy killing them to bother with the Caucasians anymore. Bush is a genius.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Victor Galis
Hey, the Serbs are sending about 1,000 troops of their own.

Great, more racist vandals.

[Victor Galis]

Originally posted by Agathon


Great, more racist vandals.

Yeah, the article that I read that in also mentioned the possibility that some of those Serbians will be veterans of the war in Bosnia.

I'm wondering why we didn't accept Rugova's offer of 500-1000 Kosovar policemen. Compared to the Serbs and Turks, they'd be almost good.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Last night I saw the Iraqi Foreign Minister bing interviewed about this on BBC World, and he made two interesting points to add to the discussion:

1) Apparently, the Iraqi cabinet expressed their reluctance about Turkish troops to both Powell and Rumsfeld weeks ago. So this may be a surprise to us, but it's not a surprise to the administration.

2) He actually backed off his initial objection to the presence of Turkish tropps in Iraq, saying that the only problem is that the troops would have to be brought on through teh Kurdish north. The implication was that if they could get the troops in without going through Kurdish regions (i.e., by air or sea), the cabinet would no longer object.

From the perspectiv of someone sitting here in Ankara, I have to say that I hope they turn down the troops. That result is win-win for Turkey: they've curried favor with the US by voting to deploy, but they won't piss off the Turkish citizenry by actually deploying.

[Kropotkin]

Considering the huge tensions between the turkish government and the kurdish minority this is bound to end up as a misstake. At least from a humanitarian point of view. That doesn't mean that Bush shoot himself in the foot. After all, Bush is dealing with bigger issues than that, in his own mind.

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by Agathon


Great, more racist vandals.

Bigot.

[dannubis]

Originally posted by Oerdin
The Arabs hate the US & UK but we're there. I suspect they'll get over hating the Turks or will at least resign themselves into putting up with them.

operation iraqi freedom right ?

[problem_child]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
This is great. If the Arabs really hate the Turks as much as you guys claim, they'll be too busy killing them to bother with the Caucasians anymore. Bush is a genius.

Their sending in Chechyens, Tajiks and Azabeijaanis too!

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
This is great. If the Arabs really hate the Turks as much as you guys claim, they'll be too busy killing them to bother with the Caucasians anymore. Bush is a genius.

Turks are Caucasians.

[chequita guevara]

From what I heard on NR this morning, they'll be deployed to the Sunni Triangle area. I guess they can't get any more hostile to us there.

[SpencerH]

Its been more than 20 years since I had any contact with the Turkish military, but I doubt they would be any good at peace-keeping (especially in Iraq). The officers are extremely arrogant and unwilling to negotiate. The troops, while (harshly) disciplined, are uneducated and poorly paid. All in all, good in war, crappy in peace.

[Alexander's Horse]

All this shows is how desperate the US is to get some foreign troop support into Iraq. They'll take anybody.