The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Clothes Make the Nation

6.18.08 @ 12:01AM

DRESS CODE
Re: George H. Wittman's Headscarves and Helmets:

The genesis of Kamal Ataturk was his belief in the modern "secular" state. This is what has allowed Turkey to bridge "east," as in Middle East, and "west."

"Outside of the major cities, in the towns, villages and farms of the rest of Turkey, there is a deep belief in the practice of Islam. To Turkey's secularists these communities breed willful ignorance. The image exists among metropolitan sophisticates that the "unwashed" of the countryside want to impose religious rules on everyday aspects of life. In other words the specter of a revival of Sharia law haunts urban Turkey."

Any U.S, service member that has been stationed in Turkey during the Cold War, knows this to be an absolute fact. Like Algeria, Iran, Libya and Egypt, the descent into Sharia Law. Turkey's balancing act between Islam's insanity and Islam's genesis was a shining hope that people dwelling in that region could benefit from modern and technical development, that they are losing, the shift back to the 12th century is no longer in the backyard scattered hill country, but in the schools, and now the universities.
-- S. in Severn

I found Mr. Wittman's column to be extremely interesting. I think that it is terribly wrong to believe that we can totally understand the Turkish situation, what with our American/European mindset. I am not convinced that we can understand all the forces at work or the full ramifications of the various options available to the Turkish government or society. In fact, I am not sure that we understand the options that are closed off to them that we, in our society, would take for granted are available.

In this case Mr. Wittman proposes that the secular societal movers and shakers, along with the military are lined up almost totally against the allowing of the camel's nose to get under the tent and stay there. We, in our Western mindset, would likely say something like, "Oh, what is the harm? It is just a head scarf. Can't everyone just be reasonable?" Fortunately or not, the Turks are looking at the issue in the context of the events that have occurred, or are occurring in the Islamic crescent of countries. They are well aware of what happened when the Islamic fundamentalists threw out the Shah of Iran. They see what is happening with the whole Palestinian situation, and while they might not be highly sympathetic towards Israel, they don't want that problem on Turkish soil. And again, they can surely see the hand of the Iranian mullahs in that mess. Fundamentalist Islam again.

The Turks, particularly their military, are well aware of the fate of Afghanistan when the Taliban little by little took power. They see the determination of the Taliban to get back in power, and the ends that they are willing to go to achieve that end.

They undoubtedly see what is transpiring before the world's eyes in Pakistan. Musharraf and the military thought that situation was under their control. Then they let the Western world, especially the US, persuade them to "open up" their iron fisted rule. They allowed Bhutto to return to roil the cauldron, and we see how that turned out. Now the Pakistani Taliban is blaming the government, when the Taliban are the ones that killed Bhutto, and the uneducated Islamic masses are buying into that side of the argument. Musharraf let the Americans and Europeans talk him into an election when the country was not ready for one. Now the new government in doing exactly what Obama says he wants to do in America. They are emasculating Musharraf and the military. They are negotiating appeasement treaties with the tribes that are fundamentalist Islamists, and form the core of the Pakistani Taliban, as fast as they can. Those treaties virtually give away the store, and yet they are being violated even before the ink is dried. Yet the new government goes full steam ahead to negotiate more of the same and pretend that everything is just wonderful. In the meantime the new Pakistani government tells us that they are not concerned with what that does to the Afghan situation. They say that is not their problem, it is our problem. Now the Afghan situation is going to Hell in a hand basket, Al Qaeda is regenerating, rearming, reequipping, retraining, and launching cross-border operations in conjunction with the Taliban into Afghanistan, and our NATO partners can only wring their hands and wail. I don't think for a moment that this situation is going unnoticed by the Turkish military, or Turkish business community.

Then you have the situation with the Kurds that straddle the Turkish/Iraqi border. They certainly are not making life any easier for the Turks. It is similar to our border problems with Mexico, only times ten. Now I happen to be very favorably inclined toward the Kurds, at least the Iraqi Kurds. That does not, however, prevent me from seeing that the fundamentalist Islamic troublemakers in Turkey are using the Kurd agitation to their own advantage, pointing out to the negatively affected Turkish citizens that none of this would be happening under Islamic rule and Sharia law.

Do we really think, for one moment that, if the scarf thing is allowed, that the Turkish Islamists are going to be satisfied, that they will just blend peacefully back into the woodwork, and stop stirring up the dissatisfied lower classes against the government? They will take that concession and step even harder on the accelerator of societal agitation. It will end up being simply one more nail in the coffin to bury individual democracy and modernity in Turkey, and return the Turks to the laws and ways of the Caliphate. As an American, I can readily say, "What harm can a scarf do?" Trying to see the situation from the Turkish context, I am not so ready to write off the concerns of the military, the business community, and the modernists in Turkey.
-- Ken Shreve

BLACK GOLD
Re: Jeffrey Lord's Teacher's Pet: Big Oil:

"[Gov. Doyle of Wisconsin] if he gets his way, will place a 'surtax' on Big Oil, which will promptly pass the cost on to Wisconsin consumers, thus ensuring that the huge investment by the Wisconsin teachers union goes -- up."

Umm...since when does taxing something result in its producers getting higher profits? In reality, Big "Education" will indeed profit from any such tax, because somehow the Wisconsin government will find a way to hand them the proceeds, but nonetheless Lord's argument is seriously off the rails.

Better to just see it as that Wisconsin's government is less dumb, and more dishonest, than it seems.
-- Roy Koczela

NEEDY
Re: Robert Stacy McCain's Who Needs Ohio?:

Letter to the Editor

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