Bertologue

Turkey has a collected interest in the war in Iraq not just stemming from multiple sources not of which the least is Turkish dependence on Iraqi oil to survive, and the desire for Neo-Ottomans to take Northern Iraq for their own. Since Turkey was made a nation after WWI they have had a desire to regain their old Ottoman glory. The Turks have forced the Turkish language on people living within their borders, and have made deals with local countries allowing them to conduct cross-border operations that enabled them to set up military outposts outside of Turkey. During many of my visits to Turkey I have always found humor in how Turks will claim all things good from the Ottoman empire to be Turkish, but whenever the “bad-portions” are brought up those are quickly explained away as being European-Ottoman problems and having nothing to do with Modern Day Turkey. I guess there is a serious desire to have their cake and eat-it-too. Neo-Ottomans are the Turks that feel a desire to regain some ...

Recently I had the privilege to read an article by Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis that compared the Kurdish Ashayish to al Qaeda. To me this was a very interesting article because I have always viewed them as diametrically opposed institutions. If you do not know what the Ashayish or al Qaeda is then let me start with that. According to their own website Al-Qaeda's objectives include the end of foreign influence in Muslim countries and the creation of a new Islamic caliphate. The name Al-Qaeda quite literally means camp and was created in Afghanistan when the Sunni Muslims were creating training bases for the mujahedeen (holy warriors) to fight against the Russians. These camps were created by the House of Saud and were funded in part by the US State Department (these actions were recently made into a movie called “Charlie Wilson’s War”). The Ashayish are the security forces of the officially recognized Kurdish Regional Government of Iraq. The Ashayish were created as th...

Ok – I have not posted for the longest time. While I was working in Iraq I started to work in areas that I really could not post about. The many things I learned while working in those areas has enriched me in many ways … and I hope I am now a better person for it. Life now finds me living in Washington DC. I am working for a defense contractor and I am using the many things I learned while living in Iraq. Already I have been able to use the experience and first-hand knowledge that I have to help guide the company along a more logical path in Near East relations. I hope I can only help. The blog that you are used to may be changing. I usually talk about places I have been or things I have seen… I am going to change that up a little bit. My job currently has me sitting in an “arm-chair-quarterback” position so I figured I would use that. I see so many things in the news that are happening around the world and I have a very different take on some of these issues because I have se...