Where Is The U.S. Headed?

BY TAHA AKYOL
MILLIYET- Columnist Taha Akyol comments on Turkish-US relations and the postwar period in Iraq and the Middle East. A summary of his column is as follows:
The US is not only our ally, but also now our neighbor, because it’s settled in the region and holding sway there again. When our ‘faraway ally’ became our ‘neighbor,’ strife followed. The US and Turkey have different stances on northern Iraq’s Kurds. The US is putting great pressure on Iran and Syria, but Turkey is looking after its own security and economic interests and so doesn’t want to break with these two countries. Of course breaking with such a huge country, that is, the US, wouldn’t work to Turkey’s advantage, but is being a huge country enough?
How much does the West, especially the US, know about this region? Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the US has considered Saudi Arabia’s regime to be ‘dangerous.’ However, it used to believe the Saudis to be their own ‘American fortress’ in the region. Now the US is facing a dilemma: The Mideast’s closed regimes produce threats of terrorism against the US or else foster and nourish terrorism. Yet at the same time, the transition to democracy opens the door for masses angry at the US taking power. US academic Yitzhak Nakash’s 1995 book ‘The Shi’is of Iraq’ is a very valuable account. However, politically Nakash was thinking along these lines: ‘Iraq’s Shiites are different from Iranian ones, that is, they are moderate. Recently fundamentalism has been emerging from Islam’s Sunni and Wahabi elements. The US should cooperate with Iraq’s Shiites.’ I think the Shiites’ revolt against Saddam Hussein caused Nakash to see them as similar to himself. However, the US wasn’t welcomed in Iraq with bouquets of flowers as some expected, and the Shiites are leading the revolt, and of course democracy will bring the Shiites to power in Iraq.
The US is keeping the pressure on Iran and Syria in hopes of deterring Iran from the Iraqi Shiites and keeping these two countries down by so as to facilitate peace in Israel. If peace were established in Palestine, one of the region’s shackles would be lifted. The Arab world would turn to a more pragmatic and liberal direction. This would benefit both Turkey and the rest of the world, if only one condition is fulfilled: the ‘peace’ which the US makes them sign should be fair and realistic. Otherwise such a ‘peace’ would only encourage more radicalism in the region. The Iraq war has already damaged the US’ image, and cries against it are growing louder every day. The US should wake up from its Mideast slumber and moreover recognize once again the Turkey’s value and important role.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION