Re: Merc Guild - Not Really

Glenn M Wilson wrote:

> >Just a note on the Turks  -- Turks are not Arabs, and while they are
> >Muslims, modern Turkey is a secular state.
> >
>
>True and if I implied they were it was unintentional.	But the religion
>of choice is till Islam.

So to speak.  While in Istanbul, I saw women in traditional Muslim
covering 
chatting with their miniskirt-clad girlfriends.  Quite an odd mix. 
Turkey's 
Muslim the way America's Christian, or Mwxico's Catholic.

> >Don Maddox sent me a URL for an article written by someone in a
> >western
> >military who encountered Turks as part of the UN forces in the
> >Balkans, and
> >spoke quite highly of the professionalism of the Turkish unit.
> >
>
>I have heard second hand that they stress professionalism and
>non-political armies more then most of the third world.

Turkey's First and second and third world all rolled into one, and
they're 
trying to improve.  As for the professionalism and non-political stance
of 
the Turkish army, that doesn't mean it doesn't ever step into political 
debates. but oddly enough, they seem more intent on making sure no
political 
party, ESPECIALLY not a fundamentalist muslim one, takes over power,
than 
they are in becoming the power themselves.  Almost a bening dictatorship

that only exerts itself when some other form of dictatorship threatens.

> >An interesting book, translated from Turkish to English, about the
> >Army is
> >"The Iron Shirts", I forget the author.  The Turkish army ingrains
> >deeply in
> >it's officer corps a sense of professionalism and loyalty to
> >democracy.
> >Attaturk, who founded toe republic and the modern army, was staunchly
> >anti-communist and equally opposed to Islmaic theocracy.
> >
>
>Bet he is unpopular in certain circles today.

In some, but those circles would not include the Army or the general
public, 
both of whom revere him - remember, Attaturk wasn't his name, it was a
title 
given him by the Turks - "Father of the Turks."   His image is
everywhere.  
I'd compare it to Lenin in the former USSR, but the people actually like
it, 
and most have his picture in their homes - more like Kennedy in Irish 
Catholic American homes.

>Again I want to point out the obvious - this is in the *F*u*t*u*r*e*
>(copyrighted) and a lot has changed between then and 'now-to-be'...

Granted

Brian B2

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