80,000 Us Soldiers?

HURRIYET- Columnist Oktay Eksi comments on discussions on stationing 80,000 US soldiers in Turkey. A summary of his column is as follows:
Hurriyet and other newspapers recently reported the most important piece of information about a possible operation against Iraq: Behind the suggestion of opening a front in the north, there is actually the idea of locating a military force of 80,000 soldiers within Turkey’s borders. If someone can locate 80,000 people in a territory and then move them out, he deserves our congratulations. As far as I understand, the US soldiers won’t stay here forever. However, when the Iraq military operation ends, these soldiers won’t go back at once either, because they need to stay until a new regime is established in Iraq. The period of time projected for this is five years. Everybody knows that the US military force which originally came to Incirlik Airbase at then President Turgut Ozal’s behest during the 1991 Gulf War is still there. Just as I wrote these lines, Parliament was coincidentally discussing extending the mandate of the above-mentioned force in our country for the 13th time. Everybody is so accustomed to the presence of this foreign force in our country that if not for Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy Sukru Elekdag, perhaps most of the parliamentarians would be blissfully ignorant of the discussion of its mandate. Some say, ‘US soldiers should come and be stationed in Turkey. They should overthrow Saddam Hussein under authorization of a United Nations Security Council resolution, establish a democratic administration there and then leave.’ But this way of thinking is nothing but self-deception. What’s more, have we forgotten that the US carried out an operation against Iraq in 1991 with the supposed aim of protecting human rights and democracy from Iraq’s attack? It’s interesting that when the US expelled Iraqi soldiers from Kuwait, it was also supporting Saudi Arabia, which has one of the most despotic regimes on the face of the earth. Likewise, the US expelled Iraq and saved Kuwait, but it was unable to bring democracy to Kuwait. But this wasn’t its real concern, so it wasn’t interested in establishing democracy in Kuwait. Therefore let’s be realistic. As Turkey can’t say no to cooperating with the US, we should limit our support as much as we can. Even bringing US soldiers in and locating them here for five years is too much. If the government and Parliament decide in favor of this, God knows what could happen next.

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