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This story pretty well summarizes the state of affairs in Turkey; it's a country with two ruling factions. The military is very wary of Islamic rule and has in the past led coups to prevent Islamic government. The most recent military action was in 1997. The current government is rooted in political Islam. What Turkey does will depend on who wins the current power struggle, and it may be a military victory.

Remember these things when you claim that Turkey is a supporter of the US war on Iraq. That support rests on the willingness of the military to overthrow the legitimately elected government.

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The London Times published this thoughtful discussion of reasons to be anti-war; it sums up a lot of what I've thought and said, but better, cause they're the Times and I am not. (The epitome of blogging, here: all I'm really doing is pointing to an article that agrees with me. But damn, it's a good article. Oh, and yeah: via The Volokh Conspiracy. Now it's a real blog post...)

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I was musing about pulp settings the other day. Off the top of my head:

It's the 1930s, and the Romany have taken to the skies. After the Hindenburg disaster, the public shied away from hydrogen dirigibles; but Paulo Pettersen, the sort of engineering genius who comes along once in a generation, believed he could make the vessels safe enough. What's more, he convinced quite a few others of the same, and la! Before anyone realized it, the Romany flew, rising up above Europe in first a dozen and then a hundred great silvery balloons.

The second part of his genius idea, you see, was to provide a place for the gazhe to do the things they couldn't do down below. Gambling, women, privacy -- and luxury, for those who had the money to spare. Why not? If Bugsy Siegel could build a paradise out of desert, surely the Romany could build one out of air.

It worked, and within a few years the skies of Europe were the playgrounds of the well-off... and the hunting grounds of the political services of Europe's nations. After all, the dirigibles were a much more convenient neutral ground than Morocco.

Paulo oversaw it all with a benevolent smile, which hid a worried frown. The inspiration for the flying nation was not his alone, as it happened; his wife, Zigana, was a seer. It was she who'd guided Paulo to success -- and it was she who'd foreseen the coming clouds.

All historical and cultural inaccuracies are mine (and yeah, I slipped some dates here and there for the sake of fiction). In fact, anyone who takes anything in this as solid history should be gently mocked until cured of the habit.

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Warren Zevon's holding in there, but this piece isn't really about that. His bravery awes me.