"The Infidel Turk"

Margaret calls my attention to a recent column by David Warren:

.... While the actual targets were Jewish synagogues last week, and British consulate and bank this week, it appears that Turkish public opinion was not impressed. The effect of the bombings has been to weld together the Erdogan administration and the Turkish military, who previously looked suspiciously upon each other. And the Turkish generals, commanding the most powerful army in the Middle East, are now aching to strike back at Syria and possibly Iran, which are believed to be sheltering the organizers of the Istanbul bombings. Another sleeping giant has been waked.

Al Qaeda and its allies have, it seems, seriously miscalculated, through a mixture of ignorance and desperation. Turkey in the future will be a much more reliable and active ally to the U.S. The recent blasts in Saudi Arabia — in which Muslim Arabs were among the intended victims — have meanwhile tended to confirm that Al Qaeda has lost the financial support of senior Saudi princes (who paid them the equivalent of "protection money" to leave Arabian targets alone). The failure to mount terrorist strikes in London during President Bush's visit there speaks for itself; Istanbul was the closest they could get.

All these things, on top of new regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, are evidence that Bush and company are making progress. But the bloodletting is far from over.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 11/24/03 06:44:27 PM
Categorized as International.