{"id":1347,"date":"2003-03-01T21:36:00","date_gmt":"2003-03-02T01:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.meehawl.com\/Blogfiles-wp\/?p=1347"},"modified":"2003-03-01T21:36:00","modified_gmt":"2003-03-02T01:36:00","slug":"turks-shut-out-us-troops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meehawl.com\/Blogfiles\/2003\/03\/01\/21\/36\/turks-shut-out-us-troops\/","title":{"rendered":"Turks Shut Out US Troops"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was surprised to read that the Turkish ruling party has lost a parliamentary motion to let US troops use its territory<\/a> as a staging post for an Iraq invasion. This is a big shock<\/a>. Apparently, around a quarter of their representatives defied the whip and the Speaker declared the vote null<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, that’s around the same percentage as deserted Tony Blair<\/a>, whose war motion was only carried with the help of the feckless Tory rump<\/a> and who now is reduced to appealing to future historians to like him<\/a>. I guess the US should have bugged the Turks’ representatives as thoroughly as the NSA has bugged the UN Security Council representatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I note that earlier reports<\/a> announced that the Turks had voted to allow the troops in, but the online news wires were quickly<\/a> revised<\/a> to make them not look like such arses. Not to worry though, as befits the Democratic Process, the Turkish government will keep browbeating its parliament until they vote the way they are expected<\/a> and the Kurds are still suspicious as hell<\/a> about Turkish motives. Perhaps with no US troops in the northern advance against Iraq, it would be easier for Turkish troops to stray into Kurdish territories?<\/p>\n

UPDATE: The Pentagon is not about to let the errant votes of a few towel heads spoil what could bea beautiful war…<\/p>\n

A senior Pentagon official said Saturday that the vote will not alter the military’s plans to try to stage tanks and other heavy equipment for the 4th Infantry Division through Turkey into northern Iraq.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently, they are hoping to airlift stuff straight into some of the US-aligned Kurdish areas<\/a>, probably from The Airstrip Formerly Known As Kuwait<\/a>. The Pentagon is also preparing to fight the Kurds<\/a>, if they get uppity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was surprised to read that the Turkish ruling party has lost a parliamentary motion to let US troops use its territory as a staging post for an Iraq invasion. This is a big...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t