For too long, the United States has indulged the illusion that Turkey remains a dependable NATO ally. That illusion ended forthis writer in 2003 when the Turkish parliament refused to let the U.S. 4th Infantry Division cross its territory.

In his memoirs “Known and Unknown,” former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote:

“Without a threat to Saddam’s forces in the north and west from U.S. troops advancing from Turkish soil, enemy fighters would have an opportunity to escape to the north and operate in the Sunni-dominated provinces where there would be no coalition presence early on.

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