United States to send troops and Patriot missiles to Turkey
The United States is to deploy 400 troops and two Patriot air-defense missile batteries to Turkey in the coming weeks to defend against potential threats from Syria, defense officials said Friday.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed the order en route to Turkey, where he is visiting Incirlik Air Base, Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters.
Little declined to give details of where the two batteries would be located, or to specify how long the deployment would last.
"The purpose of this deployment is to signal very strongly that the United States, working closely with our NATO allies is going to support the defense of Turkey, especially with potential threats emanating from Syria," he said.
Turkey and NATO insist the Patriot missile deployment would be used only for defense.
CNN's Laura Smith-Spark contributed to this report.
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Why don't they send those troops to the schools and malls right here in the USA?
I am reading a recent history of the Crimean War. England and France went to war to protect Turkey from Russia in 1854. This part of the world has been the centre of wars forever.
Turkey is equivalent to Nazis Germany. Turkey has still to acknowledge and to make reparations for the Armenian genocide. Turkey can protect itself. Let us not support Nazis like killers.
The U.S. should send no weapons and no soldiers. Let other countries pay for their own defense and let their own boys die on the front lines! Enough!
Ever heard of NATO?
Instead of sending weapons A MASSIVE CONVERSION OF MUSLIMS TO CHRISTIANITY IS NEEDED to stop global Islamic violence and madness
Isn't that the reason why there is religious conflict? Because the people who are empowered by their positions in the religious organizations see the conversion of the sheep they stand on top of being stolen away to another flock... the fear instilled in the sheep makes them less likely to stray as well.....
That statement is absolutely stupid! religious undertones have nothing to do with dictorial tranny! Christanity has just as much blood on its scripture as the muslim doctirine , fanatics and oppourtunist are going to distort the words to take advantage of the naive reguardless of religious belief!
Leave the politics to the politicians! Quit cowering behind your computer, now either get your name on a ballot or pick up a rifle and follow me.
Well said, Chock Block.
Okay folks everybody is not dumb.If you say that the Syrian government is so weak and it is about to fall,then on the other hand you're saying that a government that is about to fall is a threat to Turkey.This only makes sense to people who want to justify and rationalise nato and american imperialism.So just go ahead and say that their are imperial designs on Syria instead insulting peoples intelligence.
Do you not understand that when regimes, groups and individuals get backed into a corner and feel that they are on the edge of defeat, they then become irrational and lash-out because either they feel its their last chance and that they have nothing left to lose or they know they are going to lose and they want to take others with them? The US is doing what it can to protect Turkey against Syria's inevitible lash-out in this situation.
why international court is not hanging putin for killing 40000 inoscens syriens with cold hearted
But hey.........who needs SS & Medicare when we can spend billions protecting people that HATE us!!!!!!! Hahahahahaha
Turkey is a member of NATO and an ally.If
this has nothing to do with right wing or left...... its simply our government doing the right thing to help protect an ally that doesnt have the means from an idiot dictator who is capable of anything and completely unpredictable.... using scuds on his own people and preparing chemical weapons which have been outlawed for decades....
It could be a ploy to boost the export sales of highly mobile (transportable) Patriot PAC-3 Anti-Tactical Ballistic Missile (ATBM), but then I am not so sure. However with MEADS cancelled further spiral development of Patriot is expected.
But the Turks are certainly nervous, this is new to me.
Sayan.
I was wondering just when the right-wing thugs in Washington were going to get around to doing this. Why can't the French do this instead of us, It seems like we Americans have to do everything anymore. What good is having allies if they never take the initiative on anything?
Right Wing? Does that mean Bush is to blame again? This is OBAMA's decision so that make it a LEFT WING problem
@wjmccartan, Option not practical, the French ATBM technology is yet to mature. Apart from the Americans only the Russian ATBM technology is formidable one with India poised to make a surprise entry to this domain (driven by geopolitical compulsions).
Sayan.
I believe I read last week that Germany and one the scandanavian countries were also sending Patiot systems/support troops as well. France took a lead role in taking out Khadafi...
And even though the U.S. led in Afghanistan, Canada, Australia, Poland and a mess of other countries also lost people there.