BY ASLI AYDINTASBAS
SABAH- Columnist Asli Aydintasbas comments on postwar Iraq and Turkey’s possible role in the nation’s reconstruction process. A summary of her column is as follows:
As I write these lines today, Saddam Hussein, probably somewhere in northern Iraq, plus George W. Bush, at his farm in Texas for Easter celebrations, and Jay Garner, a retired US general appointed by Washington to oversee Iraq’s transition to ‘democracy,’ sitting at his desk at the Kuwait City Hilton, were all racking their brains to figure out their next moves. Baghdad is still suffering under a terrible, chaotic situation, with still no water and no electricity. Contrary to the US’ assertions, I think that the war isn’t quite over yet. But the Bush administration has already launched ‘Operation Iraq Reconstruction.’ So what will Turkey’s role in this process be?
Let’s first take the military aspect of the issue. Washington doesn’t want to undertake its peacekeeping mission in Iraq single-handedly and thus has been consulting with its NATO allies as well as the coalition forces for some time now. For instance US Vice President Dick Cheney recently talked to the leaders of Azerbaijan and Hungary over possible security force deployment in Iraq. Ankara has also conveyed to the US the message that Turkey, too, was willing to send troops to the country as part of an international security force. Yet, ‘surprisingly,’ the Bush administration, for the time being, does not seem willing to approve Turkish troop deployment in the country partly due to the US disappointment over our Parliament not letting US forces in for a northern offensive into Iraq, and partly due to the fear that Turkish-Kurdish clashes could set off sparks in Iraq, especially in the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, and make things much worse in the country.
Secondly there is another, and perhaps a more important aspect of the reconstruction process, namely the reconstruction, physical literal, of the nation’s infrastructures. No matter what some say, certain US officials have made clear that Turkish construction companies will have a part in rebuilding Iraq’s US-pummeled infrastructures.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION