BY ERGUN BABAHAN
SABAH- US President George W. Bush worked hard to conquer our hearts in Istanbul with his speeches praising Turkey. The NATO summit showed again that predictions our ties with Washington would break off have fallen flat. But Bush’s speeches and attitudes in Istanbul shouldn’t conceal the fact that he presented Iraq’s power transfer as a fait accompli. Bush shaking hands with British Prime Minister Tony Blair like they had won a victory can’t conceal the rout in Iraq, because the Bush administration, which told lies about weapons of mass destruction and expected to be welcomed by Iraqis, turned Iraq into a zone of international terrorism. Iraq became a country where people can’t find safety, where dozens are killed on a daily basis and where about 20 terrorist organizations, including al-Qaeda and al-Ansar, are active. Some 135,000 US troops and an Iraqi government with no army will try to hold together a country where the prospect of a split is high.
We have to get used to living with a time bomb close by, because the Bush administration is trying to escape from a country it invaded with messages about democracy. The US was so unsuccessful in Iraq that it had to make the power transfer behind closed doors. Actually the Iraqis said to have taken sovereignty can’t do much either. They will have to cope with terrorism and the chaos which rose after the invasion. There will be Shiite and Sunni Arabs and Kurds, who will ever be suspicious towards each other and are like a ticking time bomb primed to explode. These groups, who are ready to fight over issues ranging from Kirkuk to the administration in Iraq, will always be there, creating a hell right next door to Turkey. Therefore, we should be calm in listening to Bush’s words and welcome his support for our European Union membership bid, but we shouldn’t forget what kind of a geography he left us in.