[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: quote: Originally posted by Djinn Raffo: Without much fuss? Turkey screwed the US at the start of this operation.

Turkey had a real concern about a kurdish state. If it had of allowed the US to attack from its end, it would have had severe internal repurcussions, and Turkey has as many Kurds as Norther Iraq -- many just champing at the bit to secede and join a Kurdish state. As an ally the US would have taken this circumstance into consideration. [/QUOTE]Good point, Timber. I was going to address the original post earlier but haven't had time to get back to it.

Plainly stated, Turkey did not "screw the U.S." at the start of Operation Iraq. They originally said the U.S. could send ground troops through their country. This was going to be the primary launching point of the U.S. troops from the North, but then Turkey retracted that offer. As Timber pointed out, allowing their country to be used in this manner by the U.S. troops could have had a very serious backlash against Turkey from within it's own population. In the end, they managed to "straddle the fence" as best they could by allowing the U.S. to use it's air space. A token gesture (since the U.S. air strikes were being launched almost exclusively from the South) that allowed them to show their "support" for the U.S., but didn't give the internal factions anything concrete to really complain about.