Waiting for Showtime.

If you want the quick version of what the U.S. Air Force is up to at Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, skip the briefing-room slide show and check out Hassan's souvenir emporium in the Alley, a strip of shops and restaurants just outside the main gate. A shoulder patch for sale shows an American bald eagle sharpening its talons with a file. A T shirt, popular among Special Forces troops passing to and from Afghanistan, is more direct. It shows the Statue of Liberty giving a one-finger salute, with the caption, we're coming, motherf--s!

Hassan says he's stocking up: "I think there'll be a lot of business over the next few months." He's not the only one. While officials in Ankara claim they've received no specific requests from Washington to beef up the American presence at Incirlik, the Turks are certainly acting as if war may be imminent. Last week some of Ankara's top brass inspected another major air base at Diyarbakir, a garrison town in Turkey's southeast that could become a staging ground for U.S. airborne troops attacking the oil-rich northern Iraqi cities of Kirkuk and Mosul. On the same trip, Hilmi Ozkok, chief of the general staff, ordered units of the Second Army to a "state of readiness." He also confirmed that Turkish troops are already on the ground in northern Iraq, purportedly chasing separatist guerrillas but in fact preparing for possible allied action. On the civilian side, the Turkish Red Crescent--the Islamic equivalent of the International Red Cross-- announced that it was preparing tents, blankets and medicine for deployment inside Iraq in the event of a refugee exodus of the sort that followed the gulf war in 1991. Perhaps most tellingly, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit officially handed over operational control of any assault to Turkey's military, giving them a free hand if war breaks out.

Incirlik is key to any attack. American and British warplanes have used the Turkish base to enforce the U.N.-mandated no-flight zone over northern Iraq since 1991. In recent months it has been the subject of intense bargaining between Ankara and Washington over its use as a forward base in any coming air campaign. There's virtually no chance the Turks will refuse, given their close ties to the United States. The question is price. Writing off Ankara's $4 billion military debt could be one bargaining chip; another could be increased access to ...