BY HALUK SAHIN
RADIKAL- You can't expect comparisons made with wrong examples to be correct. The wrong example causes mistakes. It's like discussing sending Turkish troops to the peacekeeping force in Lebanon through the example of sending soldiers to Iraq and thus misleading ourselves. We can call this mistake the 'Iraq syndrome.' Unfortunately, it seems that this syndrome dominates the Turkish public. When you look at newspaper front pages, slogans and the remarks made by political party spokesmen, you would think that somebody was about to declare war against Turkey and cross the border with a half-million-man army. However, this is a limited peace operation under the United Nations umbrella, and only 1,000 soldiers will go there. I'm sure that some are laughing, because the people are afraid that Turkey is sending 1,000 soldiers to a place where Italy is sending 3,000. You would also think that everybody in Lebanon is just waiting for Turkish soldiers to come, some as saviors and some as the enemy. But none of this is true. Maybe Turkish soldiers will go there as a symbolic force, not as a military force due to its number and formation. However, nobody is listening and people are blowing up the issue due to the Iraq syndrome and certain ideological reasons.
What I mean by the wrong example is Turkey's rejection of US troop deployment for the Iraq war in March 2003. Actually, it was a good thing to reject that motion. However, that was different, because it included supporting an illegal occupation and it wasn't a UN operation. This time everybody is being careful to lay a proper legal basis and all the parties want this force to come. The European Union's general stance about that operation was negative, but this time there's almost full support. Nobody in Europe can say that Turkey is acting as a bully. Turkey will perform its duty with its recently forgotten identity, in other words, as a 60-year member of the Western alliance. It should perform this duty. There's no reason to worry. It won't be the end of the world just because Turkey sends 1,000 soldiers to Lebanon. However, this symbolic gesture will make it easier for Turkey to defend its vital interests. All the people who love our country should evaluate the issue in terms of Turkey's priorities. Be careful. Consider the issue not from the Iranian-Syrian-Hizbullah axis or from the US-Iraqi Kurds-Israeli axis, but in terms of Turkey's priorities. The bombs which exploded at certain tourist towns in Turkey obviously show our country's problem with priorities. The place to solve this problem is Turkey. However, we can't ignore the fact that it has a military dimension as well and Turkey can make certain gestures to draw advantage from this. The actual problem isn't sending 1,000 soldiers from Turkey to Lebanon, but where and how Ankara will pass through the doors opened by this.