BY SAMI KOHEN
MILLIYET- Columnist Sami Kohen writes on the Iraq war and Turkish-US relations in light of the postwar situation. A summary of his column is as follows:
Every day it’s becoming clearer that US President George W. Bush started the Iraq war under false pretenses and that his rationale for war consisted of nothing but made-up stories.
Where are Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction? Prior to the war, the Bush administration insistently told the world that Saddam Hussein possessed chemical and biological weapons and had even developed a nuclear weapons program. Who would believe that Bush lied to us? Who would believe that his most important argument would prove utterly hollow?
The Americans are now arguing over who lied to whom. Did the CIA mislead the president? Or did Bush lie to the world by using some dodgy evidence? No matter who’s responsible for the current situation, it’s clear that the world is now questioning Washington’s credibility.
Yesterday I attended a conference in Istanbul hosted by Professor Lisa Anderson, a Middle East scholar from New York’s Colombia University. Dr. Anderson boldly asserted that each and every piece of evidence which the Bush administration had put forth on Iraq had since been proven outright false or, at a minimum, misleading. According to Anderson, Bush launched his war of aggression in the region not for its oil supplies nor due to the threat Saddam posed to world peace. The real motive was his desire to reshape the whole region, that is to say the Middle East. Anderson contended that Bush believed regime change in Iraq would cause a domino effect leading the whole region into similar so-called ‘liberations.’
However, the Iraqi experience so far has yet to prove successful. ‘The Bush administration didn’t make any plans on how to establish peace and stability in postwar Iraq,’ argued Anderson. ‘Washington is acting like the cowboys of the Wild West!’
How long will this attitude continue? We don’t know. All we know is that the US military presence in the region is meant to be a long-term one. And what will Turkey do under these circumstances? In Dr. Anderson’s view, strained bilateral relations will be mended sooner or later. However, the important point is that Ankara must clarify its Iraq policy as soon as possible. Turkey must immediately decide what it will do in northern Iraq. There are significant differences and controversies between the northern Iraq policies of Washington and Ankara. Therefore, in order to head off future crises, our government should fine-tune its policy, and our countries should put their heads together to develop a joint strategy.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION