What Are We Waiting For?

BY YILMAZ OZTUNA
TURKIYE- Columnist Yilmaz Oztuna comments on what policy Turkey should take on sending its troops to Iraq. A summary of his column is as follows:
Anticipation is a pleasure peculiar to Turkey, yet we don’t know why or what we’re waiting for. This characteristic of ours has even become fodder for jokes in Washington. If we’re waiting for Parliament to re-convene, we have two months ahead of us yet. During this time, troops from many countries – including Japan, Italy and Spain – will deploy in Iraq. What would you say if ultimately our troops weren’t needed there, despite their status as one of the world’s most experienced armies?
Likewise, there’s the saying that the devil takes the hindmost. It’s become our national policy to take an interest in world events only when they’re drawing to a close. However, we can’t keep events and developments outside our borders waiting forever. Today having our words listened to is contingent on our pursuing a reasonable policy, one, for example, just like Poland’s. The ties Poland has with Iraq aren’t even a hundredth of ours. However, Warsaw and a great many other capitals immediately grasped that this issue isn’t about Iraq, but rather about whether one stands inside or out the Pax Americana.
Parliament has successfully passed the sixth and seventh European Union harmonization packages, but now is following a wrongheaded policy on sending our troops to Iraq. And Turkey’s foreign policy is suffering. Re-orienting this policy to the right direction should be the government’s top priority. Washington has given us a wink and a nod, and the International Monetary Fund has loosened its hold on us. What more are we waiting for?