In 2003, Turkey's parliament narrowly refused to allow one of our heavy divisions (4th Infantry Division) to invade Iraq through Turkey. Turkey also bowed out of both the invasion and refused to help with post-war stability despite early rumors that they'd contribute troops. In the end, only very small forces based out of Turkey. But in the end, we won.
Now Turkey, which has flirted with breaking reliance on NATO and has broken with Israel to woo the Arab world and Iran, finds that they have a military problem they'd like help with.
As a bonus, the Turks seem to be angering the Russians as the Turks confront Syria:
Adding to strains with Turkey over the conflict in Syria, Russia demanded on Thursday that Turkey explain why its warplanes forced a Syrian passenger plane flying from Moscow to Damascus to land in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on suspicion of carrying military cargo.
Yeah, I recall Turkey getting upset with Israel halting civilian ships trying to ship arms to Hamas. Who can blame Russia? We all feel their pain.
In the end, we should help our ally, Turkey. But after what we've endured from Turkey the last decade, I hope we exact a price for that aid.
