Talking Turkey

Few things felt more depressing this week than the extensive WSJ piece by Robert Pollock on the rampant America-hatred at all levels of Turkish society. And his ugly evidence list didn't even mention the current best-selling book in the country, "Metal Storm," which has this for a plot: "After a clash with Turkish forces in northern Iraq, US troops stage a surprise attack. Reeling, Turkey turns to Russia and the European Union, who turn back the American onslaught."

The best blog analysis of this, I'm afraid, comes from New Sisyphus. "I'm afraid," because they have the old-fashioned conservative self-interested approach to U.S. foreign policy, not the Neo-Con idealistic "spreading freedom" version that I favor.

Turkey is the new Middle East’s future. We are likely to be hated for some time to come. But we are hated in Spain and France as well. The hatred, by itself, the opposition to U.S. policies, by itself, is only of minimal import.

A nascent fascism has taken root in the Muslim world. There is no escaping the hate, the anger, the all-important grievances. But what we can escape is the full consequence of that hatred. By opening up a democratic space in the Middle East, we allow other, competing interests—like the interest of bettering one’s lives, of one’s children having a better life—to fight it out with the Grievance Party. By creating a context for the natural give-and-take of democratic politics we increase the likelihood that the hatred will be deflected and minimized until it recedes.

Make no mistake: Bush’s policy is designed to protect us specifically and the West in our interest. It’s nice when an Iraqi thanks us for their election day, but the truth is it doesn’t matter whether or not they are grateful.

The goal is Turkey: hate-filled, conspiracy-fuelled, but still democratic, moderately secular, peaceful and relatively prosperous. As bad as it is for us to look at squarely, a Middle East full of states like Turkey is the best we can hope for out of a terrible situation.

This is what victory looks like. They still hate us, they still despise us, but they also have their lives, other things to devote energies to.

Let the next generation work on their hearts and minds. Right now we must do everything we can to make this work. Fail, and we’re looking at a repeat of World War II.