"Turkey's Balancing Act
Despite some worrying recent developments in NATO's only Muslim country, the Lebanon tragedy may provide an opportunity.
August 4, 2006
BETWEEN THE END OF WORLD WAR II and the beginning of the Cold War, President Harry S. Truman declared that a failure to aid Turkey would have negative ramifications 'reaching to the West as well as to the East.'
What Truman knew then holds true today: Turkey remains the physical, cultural and strategic bridge between East and West. Lately, it has been reasserting that role, even at the expense of alienating its old Western allies. The United States and Europe need to prepare for and manage the inevitable disagreements ahead while soliciting a greater Turkish role in the troubled Middle East, beginning in Lebanon. "
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