Mehmet Yilmaz: ''The military shadow" that hangs over this debate!

I touched the other day on the ridiculous nature of the debates occuring over the ending date and style of the recent land operation into Northern Iraq by Turkish troops.

Just as I had guessed, the debates are gaining new levels of "depth." They actually becoming more and more amusing in nature, and our political leaders, who speak the same way most people chew gum (over and over, repetitious and non-thinkingly) are getting the most out of the situation.

But there are two subjects which I am really having a hard time understanding within this all:

The first: Why has General Yasar Buyukanit even entered into this whole debate?

After all, the operation's political dimensions are a matter of concern for the administration, not the military's General Staff. Which is why it is the administration--and not the armed forces-- which needs to respond to the criticisms being leveled against the operation!

The second: Why does this administration seem to feel the need to hide behind the military?

Wasn't it this very administration which was made so uncomfortable by the prominence of our military in everything? Weren't they the ones opposed to the creation of a military shadow overhanging the regime?

But now I look and see that the "Islamic media" in Turkey, which was accustomed to printing with lightening-like speed comments about the "voice of the military," and now I note that this same media is saying nothing about how the military is getting involved this time around. This situation alone is enough to arouse suspicions in a person.

But the strangest thing is this I believe: the idea that "when it suits us, the military should sit quietly in its barracks, but when it doesn't suit us to explain things, the military should get involved in verbal spars with the opposition!"

This is really a funny nation we inhabit here.