George W. Bush is the best thing that could have happened to the Islamists

Jerry Bowles asks the question, "Who Lost Turkey?":

Has the invasion of Iraq in any way made United States citizens and property less vulnerable to terrorist attacks at home or abroad?

Has it changed the behavior of any Arab state in a way that is beneficial to the U.S.?

Has it produced a backlash that could destabilize Turkey, one of the few Islamic success stories?

That would be a catastrophic consequence of our cowboy imperialism. pos

Few people realize this but Turkey is actually one of the central players in the battle going on in the Middle-East today. Indeed, the Islamist movement's rise can be traced, in part, to the rise of the secular government in Turkey. Turkey is the only Middle-Eastern Islamic country that has adopted a Western style separation of church and state. This is a notion that Islamists find offensive. To them, all matters, both earthly and spiritual, are subject to Allah's will. A secular government is a smack in the face to them because it suggests that there is a portion of human society that should be off limits to God.

Far from scaring the Islamists, the fall of Saddam Hussein has only invigorated them. In part this is because Hussein was an enemy of the Islamists. They hated his government almost as much as they do Israel and Turkey. It is the height of irony that we have accomplished one of their major goals for them by bringing down Hussein. The attacks in Turkey suggests that they looking to finish the job.