THE DAILY STANDARD welcomes letters to the editor. Letters will be edited for length and clarity and must include the writer’s name, city, and state.
*1*
As a native of Turkey now living in the United States, I read Gerald Robbins’s Misreading Turkey with great interest. For what it’s worth, I must say that I am ashamed of the Turkish government’s latest stunts: first dragging out the negotiations at the 11th hour, then delaying–and now postponing indefinitely–a vote which would have allowed deployment of U.S. troops and resulted in a more speedy war and victory with fewer U.S. casualties, not to mention a huge amount of cash for a financially stressed country and a strong say in matters in Kurdish northern Iraq. What a disgraceful demonstration of irresponsibility. It is almost impossible to find persuasive arguments of why the Turkish people cannot appreciate the threat Iraq poses for the United States and the world, especially since they have suffered tremendously and have, since the 1970s, lost thousands to terrorism.
The terrorism brought upon by the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) alone, and its leader Abdullah Ocalan, caused the deaths of 30,000 Turks. It was well known that the PKK was actively supported by Syria, Iraq, and Russia. Ironically, it was through the critical support of the CIA and Israeli Mossad that the Turkish Secret Service was able to apprehend the PKK leader in a far-away African country, bring him to justice in Turkish courts, and end the terrorism this evil man had brought upon Turkey for more than 10 years.
(Quick Note: I don’t think that “international legitimacy” has anything to do with it; if it did, there would have been a solution to the decades-old Cyprus problem a long time ago. If the Turkish people want “international legitimacy” from the United Nations before committing to participate in an invasion of Iraq, why have scores of U.N. resolutions on Cyprus not commanded the same respect and attention?)
After September 11 and 12 years of defiance by Saddam Hussein, the new government in Turkey fails to make the case to its own people (I am not convinced they even tried) and even fails to use the majority it holds in parliament to support its best ally–in effect supporting France and Germany, the countries which have blocked Turkey’s quest to join the E.U.
–John Konakci
Gerald Robbins responds: I found John Konakci’s letter to be poignant and a reflection of several Turkish friends living stateside. Without sounding too Clintonesque, I feel his pain.
From what I’ve been able to note, voices such as Konakci’s have been left out of the discourse. The media’s take on the Turkish and U.S. sides has essentially framed the situation in a subjective manner: namely war is bad, only the Turkish military wants it (not forgetting the U.S. oil and defense industry warmongers). Views like Konakci’s have been left out, essentially because they do not conform.
While AKP is an unwieldy mass trying to figure out who they are in classic populist manner, secularist avocations are now the province of CHP’s left of center bearings. The Turkish center-right is in complete disarray following the November election, so there’s no coherent point of view–much less an institution that can espouse its free market, Anglo-oriented philosophy. Amid AKP’s murkiness and the scattered center-right, the only entity able to uniformly get its message across is CHP (which I’ve always seen as a Franco-oriented mixture of Gaullist nationalism and socialist solutions).
As a friend used to joke with me, if you don’t like Jacques Brel and late night philosophical talk, you can’t join CHP.
Konakci should think of himself as part of a Turkish “silent plurality.”
*2*
Thank to Christian Lowe for his wonderful Ultimate Reality. We are a military family: our 20-year-old son is a United States Marine, a special ops team leader who is currently deployed. He is mature beyond his years, and certainly beyond his peers in college. He is simply the finest man I know. When I visit with his comrades in arms, they are a group I am proud to be with.
If only the media would spend more time with the people whose sacrifices give Sean Penn and Martin Sheen the ability to be both rich and arrogant.
–Michael Becker
*3*
The question Jonathan V. Last raises of whether Iraq is compatible with a democratic form of government is an important one (Questions on Iraq).
We must not overlook the impact that culture has on a political system. It is overly simplistic to assume shared values and other cultural factors. As Hayek has pointed out, democracy itself is little more than a system requiring 51 percent of the vote to control the political agenda. That’s the easy part. As the Glasser article points out, it is what you do with political power that matters. When we speak of “democratic values” were are really talking about notions of liberty, equality, and justice. As Richard John Neuhaus argues, such notions are influenced by culture.
When you consider that Islamic culture has undergone neither a reformation or enlightenment (see Bernard Lewis; “What Went Wrong”) the prospects are challenging to say the least.
–Kevin Holsclaw
*4*
Christopher Caldwell’s Blizzard Economics is an excellent primer for the untutored on the need for private incentives. However, his admittedly off-the-cuff conclusion, by focusing on society’s claims, overreaches and obscures the issue his example raises–the production of goods. The snow shovelers didn’t build streets; they cleared them after a blizzard. Their claims properly extinguish with the snowmelt or eventual municipal snow removal.
If society wishes production not forthcoming from private efforts–be it for war materiel, environmental purity, health security, better social safety nets, or good ol’ fashioned pork and patronage–the “case” for those goods and the resultant claims upon citizens needs to be made continuously else that production and society’s claims ought to disappear like the snow in Caldwell’s neighborhood.
–Doug Anderson
*5*
I have a few additional chart-toppers from the antiwar Hit Parade for Fred Barnes (The Peacenik Top 10): -War is to be avoided because it hasn’t been proven that Saddam has weapons of mass destruction and because, if attacked, Saddam will surely unleash a holocaust with his chemical weapons. -War must be resisted because it will surely wreck the economy and because it’s a transparent ploy by the Bush administration to rescue the faltering U.S. economy.
–Tom McLaughlin
*6*
Fred Barnes’s article claimed that “New resolutions have been approved, inspectors ousted, and the United Nations made to look impotent.”
Please, these events revealed the United Nations to be impotent.
–Stephen Friedrich
*7*
When Fred Barnes argues that the case for war is not “weakened in the slightest by the absence of the French or the Angolans” he reveals his contempt for poor and small nations. The association between France and Angola is designed to create a comical effect about the French at the expense of the Angolans. What about the 40 countries supporting the U.S. position? Does it matter whether they are rich or poor?
–Francois Collet
*8*
As Fred Barnes notes, if “it’s all about oil,” has no one noticed that the U.S. had 550,000 crack troops on the ground in Iraq in 1991? That force was more than sufficient to take all of Iraq’s oil then, and to establish a “protectorate” for the rest of the region’s oil. Not only did we not take a single barrel’s worth, we even put out the oil-well fires that Saddam started in Kuwait.
–Bob Morrison
*9*
Jonathan V. Last provides unintentional ammunition for not declaring war on Iraq because what will occur after hostilities cease is neither a pretty nor an inviting prospect. In other times, the United States might count on U.N. support for the rebuilding effort, but with the way the Bush administration has racked up international enemies with its bullying and arrogant manner, it’s doubtful that many other nations will rally to the cause.
There is no doubt, and this is my fundamental agreement with Last, that a democratic Middle East would be enormously beneficial to the region and the world. But I am especially struck, as Last is, by Islamist fundamentalists’ hostility to democracy and democratic institutions.
–Richard Currie
*10*
In her article A War of Conviction and Leadership, Claudia Winkler concludes: “[W]e stand at a pivotal point in history. We should pray that someday our descendants may look back on this moment and see that firmness in the right helped number the days of Middle Eastern fascism, seedbed of costly misery and mischief.”
How true this is! And our descendants may see that day, if America makes a magnanimous, intelligent, and sustained effort to bring real democracy to Iraq, and then to the Middle East.
The transformation of Japan and Germany was one of America’s greatest moments. We can do it again, but we did not accomplish that transformation cheaply or casually. Millions of dollars (in 1945 terms), years of planning and occupation, and expertise from people who knew Japan and Germany well were all poured into that effort. We must now make a commensurate effort to ensure our own long-term safety. If we merely install a friendly dictator or allow Iraq to collapse into chaos, we will certainly buy ourselves temporary safety, but our descendants will only see more misery and mischief from the region.
–Paula Abel
