BY YILMAZ OZTUNA
TURKIYE- Columnist Yilmaz Oztuna comments on the postwar period in Iraq and wider US designs for the future of the Middle East. A summary of his columns is as follows:
The United States appears to have hit very troubled waters in re-establishing peace and order in Iraq. Long years of dictatorship have swept away all of the normal political and administrative structures in the country. And now the US is trying to set up a ‘democratic’ regime headed by a group of people who have spent most of their lives in exile. But these figures are by now strangers to the country and are not likely to be welcomed by the longtime native Iraqis. For instance, Ahmad Chalabi, on whom the US is putting a lot of its cards, is a man who is covered by charges of corruption up to his neck. People like Chalabi are unlikely to treat the already repressed and impoverished Iraqis any better than they were before.
The US can’t bring democracy to Iraq. In fact, it doesn’t even want to. Just a regime loyal to Washington would be fine. The US will be done with Iraq as soon as the Bush administration makes certain that other Middle Eastern countries swallow its plans concerning the country’s new regime. Following up on Iraq, the next target will be Syria together with Lebanon. Jordan, however, is both an ally of both the US and Britain. It has never been involved in Baathist racism. But for Syria, things don’t look well right now. Damascus may be harboring Saddam Hussein and his close aides. If these rumors prove true, Washington wouldn’t hesitate to turn Syria into a second Iraq.
In any case, after gaining a substantial foothold in the eastern Mediterranean the US will have its sights set on Iran. Such a plan would require intense diplomatic groundwork. I wonder if Turkey’s political and bureaucratic organs are ready to handle such a project.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION