No Replacement For Displacement

Updates on the war

Turkish Cabinet Agrees to US Combat Troop Deployment

Britain to Introduce Second Iraq Resolution Monday

UN Denies Iraq's Request to Reconsider Missile Destruction Order

OK, here's my take on what's going on. First of all, anyone who thinks that the Turks have done anything at all to hold up deployment of US troops is buying into a disinformation campaign hook, line, and sinker. The agreement was made long ago, but was kept on the QT in order to make it look like the Turks were being obstructing deployment. We probably had agreed long ago that we would deploy enough troops to Turkish ports to offload equipment from our ships. When the offloading was nearing completion, then we officially asked to deploy the personnel for that unit(the equipment already having been unloaded). Of course, at this point, even though the actual numbers were settled on long ago in secret, the Turks would "up the ante", and "obstruct the deployment" by asking for more money. Scare quotes here are quite warranted, since the number that the Turks "demanded" was probably agreed on months ago. The whole upshot of this is to create an open question as to how long it will take to deploy forces to Iraq's north. To talk about the how "obstinate" the Turks means ignoring the very real possibility that the obstinacy was in itself a sham.