BY YILMAZ OZTUNA
TURKIYE- Columnist Yilmaz Oztuna comments on why the US is waiting on the troop deployment issue. A summary of his column is as follows:
Up to now the US has fervently wanted the deployment of Turkish soldiers in Iraq, but now it’s hesitating, which is confusing. This also shows that Washington itself is confused. Actually the US’ indecisiveness about its post-invasion Iraq course has been clear. It was unable to even provide public safety. Is the US wondering if Ankara won’t pay attention to the Syria and Iraq issues? Is it hesitant because of this? Is it waiting for more developments? How does it view the months-long delay of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) on the deployment motion? We’ll know very soon.
The US made the United Nations arrive at the resolution it wanted, and now it may think that many soldiers are coming from other countries but that Turkey missed the boat. It will never hand over control in Iraq to the UN. It’s aiming to impose its political will, even change the country’s borders. If they don’t suit its interests, Washington will ignore both the UN and the countries of the Middle East.
When the political stage is set for Syrian and Iranian operations – actually this has already started – the problems in Iraq will fall to second on both the international agenda and Turkey’s. The US will accuse Syria of harboring terrorist groups linked to Iran and accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons and threatening world peace. The US will thus claim to be taking revenge for the Sept. 11 attacks, but actually it will be establishing dominion over Eurasia, grabbing up most of the world’s energy resources and trying to keep US citizens on the top of the economic heap. Of course there will be some obstacles, but the US will overcome them as well as it can.