The Turkish people and their government are to be congratulated for standing up for their principles and choosing the path of peace ("Turkey Rejects U.S. Troop Deployment," March 2). Though they may suffer short-term financial hardship as a result of this situation, the longer-term consequences may be more favorable than they currently suspect. The right-wing and opportunistic European governments that are falling in line with the U.S. on Iraq are in the process of slitting their own throats, as their people are almost without exception strongly opposed to the U.S. position in this matter. Thus, the new governments that emerge may be appreciative of the principled stand for peace that the people of Turkey have taken.
Great evil can flourish only when good people stand aside. The rise to power of the Nazis in Weimar Germany occurred only because individual Germans made millions of small compromises of principle in their seeming self-interest. In the long run, they reaped the whirlwind for this.
If today's governments analogously calculate that lining up with a bully is the prudent thing to do, nothing will stop the juggernaut of Pax Americana. And, one day, some of these governments may find that they are the target of the next invasion, as the rest of the world looks on in seeming approbation.
