Doha and Dolts

No, I'm not making pro- or anti-WTO commentary here, just pointing out that the lack of media coverage or comprehension of the final collapse of Doha July 29 was astonishing in its ignorance. The attitude of western developed nations had all but guaranteed a failure for the Doha round anyway, but the participants got tantalizingly close to a partial compromise, only to see everything fall apart. And only the obvious NY Times and Wall Street Journal noticed. As WTO director-general Peter Lamy said, this is a "massive blow to confidence in the global economy," and will have far more lasting effect on citizens in every nations than 5.4 earthquakes in Los Angeles or kidnapped babies in Florida. But duh sells.

After all, we can't expect US media to pay attention as the Turkish constitutional court narrowly decides against throwing out the government, despite the massive impact this will have on the EU and on secular-Islamic relations. We only saw the Serbian nationalist protests covered because of blood, tear gas, bandanas, and fire. Cheer up! We'll always have plenty of takes of Amy Winehouse vs. Duffy on the soulful singer-stringer front, we'll always have Nancy Grace picking apart the latest blood crime signifying nothing, we'll always have Glenn Beck warning us that the wily Mexicans are out to gun us down with their poison jalapenos. We have a right to be uninformed. As Walking Wounded would say, I'm "saddled by idiots."

FARC Follies and Ergenekon Eruptions

Forget Seymour Hersh's obsessions with a U.S. invasion of Iran, the real action is going in the peripheries, places like Colombia and Turkey. In Colombia, we can all give loud "huzzahs" that the FARC hostages are free, while realizing the political benefits John McCain will just happen to realize by just happening to be there when a Colombian military commando operation freed 15 hostages held for up to six years by the FARC. Let me say up front that I may not like Alvaro Uribe and I smell the hand of Bush everywhere, but I consider the FARC an illegitimate gang of thugs with no claim to a coherent political agenda. Hell, even Hugo Chavez says he doesn't like them any more. But before we say, "Job well done!" to the Colombian military, we have to ask how this all just happened to coincide with the McCain visit. Uh huh. Right. (Meanwhile, Obama visits Colorado Springs and waxes poetic about faith-based initiatives, even as his supporters chide him for caving in on the NSA-telephone-company-immunity issue. Politics as usual.)

The current Turkish comedy of terrors is harder to decipher. Over the past few days, 21 nationalist militants have been arrested for being members of Ergenekon, yet another secret Turkish fascist society dedicated to preserving secularism and eradicating Muslims. Now, in past coups -- 1960, 1980, 1997 quasi-coup, take your pick -- the CIA has clearly been involved in funding groups like Gray Wolves. Hell, in 1980, even mild-mannered Jimmy Carter was directly involved in supporting the Turkish military in crushing citizen democracy movements.

The AK Party of Recep Erdogan represents a different beast. Many players in the Bush administration, particularly in State and Treasury, see the Muslim party ruling Turkey as one that aids the economy and respects democracy. In fact, the European Union has warned Turkish judicial sources that any attempt to remove AKP will virtually end Turkey's chances of joining the EU. And yet, there seem to be members of the U.S. defense and intelligence community who have secret admiration for the attempts by the Turkish chief prosecutor to bring the AKP before the constitutional court as an illegitimate government. Certainly, US Vice President Dick Cheney does not tolerate the concept of Muslims running democratic governments, and probably admires the Ergenekon efforts to prod the constitutional court with a little organized violence. Where does the CIA stand? The Pentagon? The EU? US Congress? These seem far more interesting questions than ponderings on Iran.

[JULY 6 UPDATE: Two more key generals were arrested over the weekend for Ergenekon involvement. The leader of the Republican People's Party says that those in favor of Kemalist secularism are under attack. Try "those that are opposed to democracy by supporting secularism through fascist systems."]

Stopping Faith-Based Government at the Barrel of a Gun

For once, the U.S. and EU governments were in absolute synch and reached a reasonable conclusion. They warned Turkey's military on April 28 that, no matter what happened in Abdullah Gul's race for president, the military staff needed to respect democracy and not intervene, as they have far too many times in the last 50 years. The only observation to make to the military's credit is that the officers seemed much less worried about Gul's candidacy than about the new effort by some Islamic radicals in Turkey to intimidate secularists and enforce the sharia. In that they have a right to be concerned.

Turkey's military is faced with the problem that Algeria faced in 1992. What if an Islamic electoral party is leading in an election, yet freely admits it is not interested in upholding democracy after coming to power? The Algerian government canceled elections and faced a decade of a brutal terror war. Turkey does not really face such a problem, since Gul and Prime Minister Erdogan are among the nation's biggest modernizers.

For a military dedicated to secularism, the problem of "creeping Islam" can't be minimized. If a government is to respect human rights and equality of opportunity, it simply must be secular-based. Faith-based social policy and decisions made on the basis of sharia (or Scripture, for that matter) constitute de facto violations of human rights.

But the solution Kemal Ataturk came up with is no solution. In the coups of 1960 and 1980, the Turkish army instituted a brand of fascism that was far worse than the radicalism or creeping Islam it sought to replace. In the past, Jimmy Carter winked at the 1980 coup to preserve access to intelligence bases in Turkey, so the Bush administration's warning should be seen as a tiny step forward.

Since the EU still is debating Turkey's entry to that body, the position of its members is worth examining. Basically, European nations (many of whom are arguing their own limits to sharia) are suggesting that Islam in government can be limited, but only by civilian authorities. The problem with halting Islam through use of the army is a basic issue of the armed forces' place in society, and a resolution requires a modification of Turkey's constitution. Since that is highly unlikely, Turkey's entry into the EU is equally unlikely.

The role of Turkey's army has significance far beyond the Gul candidacy. Since the army is committed to upholding the (near-sacred) memory of Ataturk, it prodded the government to institute a ban on YouTube after some crude anti-Ataturk videos appeared. Defenders of true democracy recognize that there are no heroes above reproach, even heroes of the revolution. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are regularly excoriated in this country for slave-owning and shady dealings. A democracy that lionizes its founders and prevents critiques of them is no democracy.

Whatever happens to Turkey in the next few months cannot be good - a military coup, a near-civil war, or growing Islamic terror against secularists seem to be the choices. But in any event, the military belongs back in its barracks unless and until the political situation deteriorates into gunfire in the streets. In the meantime, we can kiss goodbye to Turkey in the EU.

May 1 Addendum

At least the Constitutional Courts acted instead of the military, and maybe all the protesting pro-secularists are happy, but this is all beginning to smell very much like Algeria. Not a good thing.