If you don't fight, you're a loser Turkey lost out on US$30 billion by not supporting the US in the war with Iraq. Now, with mounting debts and many people out of work, the Islamist government faces rumblings from the military, Lynne O'Donnell reports.

(From South China Morning Post)

THE MILLIONS of barrels of Iraqi oil being pumped on to massive ocean-going vessels moored off a southern Turkish port are serving as a bitter reminder to the pro-Islamist authorities in Turkey of what might have been if only they had taken advantage of the build-up to war.

As oil flows again through the pipeline stretching from the vast northern oilfields of Kirkuk to Turkey's Ceyhan port, the Turks are ruing the squandered opportunities of the fall of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship. Instead of becoming a pivotal force in the reconstruction of its strategically important and oil-rich neighbour, and simultaneously boosting its own status as a regional power, they have been reduced to the role of bystander.

As the spoils are lined up for distribution to the "coalition of the willing" - nations that actively backed the war against Mr Hussein - Turkey is trying to cope with the consequences of having backed away from supporting the United States and turning down the rewards for doing so.

The hard crumbs in the earnings from the oil passing through Ceyhan on its way from Kirkuk to markets beyond will hardly make up for the lost billions that could have - many would say should have - already begun pouring into Turkish coffers from the US for services rendered.

"Turkey has become less significant than even Poland, which sent only 50 to 60 soldiers to Iraq," said Murat Karayalcin, a former foreign minister who now heads the Social Democratic People's Party.

"If Turkey had stated what kind of policy it would follow from the beginning, it could have taken its place in the reconstruction process, for sure."