Tug Of War Among Hawks!

I personally believe that the hawks of the U.S. are primarily responsible for this ugly incident i.e. soldiers of an ally house arresting the soldiers of another NATO country!

We all know that the Pentagon and state Department are not getting along in Washington D.C.

The team headed by Donald H. Rumsfeld and Paul D. Wolfowitz, under the protege of dick Cheney is passing over Colin K. Powell and his aide Richard L. Armitage each passing day with more powerful steps.

The neo-cons are winning in D.C. and they have also won the digital war in Iraq but so far they are not victorious in establishing order in Iraq, an order that will best fit their interests.

They are allies with Kurds in the area i.e. northern Iraq but they have not "convinced" the majority Shiites yet!

The Sunni-pro-Saddam militia costing lives to American soldiers has openly challenged them.

The loss of soldiers is also costing the neo-cons by the decreased support of American people at home.

The open failure in the area after a successful war is urging the neo-cons to take a more and more hard-line approach and they are also loosing their nerves.

The neo-unilateral international policy of the U.S. "you are either with me or you are a rival!" is loosing a lot of credit to the U.S. as we have seen in Turkey in the last incident.

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The reasoning of the hawks for the cause of house arrests as reported by the New York Times (July 7, 2003) is:

"Senior American officials cast the incident in a different light, saying the Turkish soldiers appeared to have been involved in a plot to assassinate an American-backed Iraqi official.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior Defense Department official said the soldiers who stormed the Turkish compound in Sulaimaniya on Friday were "acting on intelligence about possible illicit activities that were being planned against municipal officials in the region’.

A senior American military official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed this account, saying the plot appeared to be aimed at the governor of Kirkuk, a nearby city.

The assertion by American officials that Turkish soldiers may have been plotting to undermine the American occupation is bound to have an incendiary effect here."

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On the other hand, the way the Turkish side approaches the ugly, incident is as follows according to Financial Times (July 7, 2003):

"A senior Turkish official said that the 11 soldiers were part of a Special Forces contingent in northern Iraq whose number, purpose and location were known to the Americans.

"There is nothing unknown, illegal or harmful in their presence," the official told the FT, adding that it was "impossible" that the soldiers were involved in plotting to assassinate Kurdish officials.

He noted that they had been detained together with members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two parties that run northern Iraq with U.S. support."

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But again according to the FT, the Kurdish groups believe:

"The Kurdish parties that control the northern region fear that Turkey is using the ethnic Turkoman minority to subvert their influence. The situation was inflamed when the city of Kirkuk, claimed by both Turkoman and Kurdish as part of their historical homeland, elected a Kurdish mayor under U.S. supervision in May".

But also:

"Since the early 1990s Turkey has based 1,500 troops in Dohuk, partly for peacekeeping and partly to ward off PKK guerrillas from using northern Iraq as a base of operations against Turkey.

Turkey also keeps a small force in the Iraqi Kurdish town of Arbil, officials to monitor a ceasefire between warring Kurdish parties. According to the Kurdish authorities the force has outlived its use, calling it a "nuisance".

In May the Kurdish parliament formally asked the Turkish forces in Iraq to withdraw but so far have had no response".

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It seems to me that the Turkish hawks who strongly believe that they cannot trust both the U.S. and the EU at all as:

1) Both want to weaken Turkey by bringing more freedom to the country, and

2) Turkey cannot also depend on the U.S.’s guarantee that they will not allow PKK terrorists to assault Turkey. Turkey should take her precautions in northern Iraq and help the Turkomans there in order to minimize the Kurdish power.

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I believe that this round of tug of war between the hawks has been won by the Turkish side as the American side made a serious and foolish mistake this time by detaining the soldiers of the only Islam country they can trust and depend on in the area!

I also believe that the Turkish side has also equaled the score to "1-1 after loosing to the American side during the March 1 voting!