Turkey, Europe and the US

The Bush administration in the US has made clear its aspiration to encourage democracy in the Middle East, a region which is almost certainly the least democratic in the world. However, if there is a conflict between democracy and US interests, the latter will be pursued by Washington. From Lebanon's Daily Star comes the following remarks by Ed Blanche in "Troubled Turkey, at odds with US and Europe, lurches toward crisis again":

On May 6, [Deputy Defense Secretary Paul] Wolfowitz echoed the resentment felt throughout the Bush administration for Turkey’s refusal to allow US troops to deploy on its soil to invade Iraq. Speaking on CNN-Turk television, he singled out the [Turkish] military for not taking “the strong leadership role” on Iraq that Washington “would have expected” by pressing Parliament to cooperate with the US. That was interpreted in many quarters as a thinly veiled call for a coup and has led to demands in Congress that Wolfowitz resign for “undermining democracy in Turkey.”

It is ironic indeed, that the Bush administration, which has embarked so high mindedly on a crusade of “regime change” in the region to encourage democratic reform, should carp so bitterly when a Parliament elected by all accounts fairly and properly voted against US wishes. The administration’s sullen resentment at Turkey’s decision to stay out of the war, reflecting the sentiment of the overwhelming majority of its people, is unlikely to convince others in the region that US intentions are wholly honorable.

There is a certain naïveté in the current administration's assumption that a world full of democracies will inevitably lead to a world more conducive to America's self-defined interests.

On the other hand, it may be that, with the addition of ten new members to the European Union, Europe will become considerably more pro-American than it is now. From The Boston Globe: "10 EU candidates expected to alter alliance and continent."