"Once-warm relations a casualty of war
By Catherine Collins
Special to the Tribune
Published March 25, 2005
ISTANBUL -- When Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld blamed Turkey for the American military's continuing troubles with the insurgency in Iraq, he fanned the flames of a problem that has been smoldering for two years.
'Clearly, if we had been able to get the 4th Infantry Division in from the north through Turkey, more of the Iraqi Saddam Hussein Baathist regime would have been captured or killed,' Rumsfeld said Sunday in an interview on Fox News. 'The insurgency today would be less.'
Rumsfeld's comment was not the first time the Bush administration has laid its troubles with the insurgency at Turkey's doorstep. In fact, his remarks were only the latest round of barbs between Ankara and Washington."
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