Supposably the Turkish public is 95% against this new war against Saddam. Given the long history of conflict the Turks have had against the Kurds, I'm a bit skeptical about this number. This future war will provide the Turks with a perfect opportunity to establish a Kurdish buffer zone along their southern border and pacify the Kurds. Also the Turkish economy is in the toilet. They disperately need the money that we were offering them. There is a smell of religion about this whole exercise. If it is religion that's driving this then the Turks may cut off their nose to spite their face. However, I'm hoping what's going on here is the Turkish government is setting itself up to tell its own public: "We really, really didn't want to deal with the Americans on this but after much deliberation we concluded that we had no real choice". On Tuesday we'll find out.

Gary