Plan A Out, Plan B In

TURKIYE- Writing yesterday, Columnist Yilmaz Oztuna comments on a US change of plans on Iraq. A summary of his column is as follows:
US Secretary of State Colin Powell phoned Prime Minister Abdullah Gul at 2:00 a.m. to tell him that ‘Plan B’ would be carried out in the US’ Iraq operation. This means that the US had changed its mind about opening a second front from Turkish territory because of our government’s wavering and delaying on the issue, which the superpower found itself no longer able to tolerate.
Although Turkey considered a mass deployment of US soldiers in Diyarbakir an awkward matter, this concern is understandable. However, the US should have been given the word months ago. Keeping the US waiting was both dangerous and improper. Today Washington is fuming at two states, Turkey and France. What a diplomatic coup!
Ankara’s interpretation is unclear because everybody is saying something different, but it’s obvious that Washington no longer considers us a strategic ally. We’ve completely lost our credibility. This is a crushing defeat for Turkish foreign policy, one which can only be made up for through great effort. Our ability to be considered among the 30 allied countries supporting the Iraq operation depends on our at least authorizing US jet overflights.
Probably our military won’t be given the necessary information to protect itself from attack by US jets. If this happens, we can’t endanger our army by moving it into Iraq. The information in question will certainly be given to the northern Iraqi peshmergas, who – thanks to us -- are America’s new strategic allies. The intense activity carried out in Turkey in order to destroy the Turkish-US friendship in the name of peace shouldn’t be forgotten.
How will this all end up? That question will be the subject of future columns. At any rate the US bombardment will start at the end of this week -- or even, some say, as early as tonight.

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