Whose fault is this? The wingnuts are already blaming the Turkish government, which, according to them, should have just disregarded overwhelming public opinion against the war to back a U.S. invasion.

But don't blame the Turks. And in particular, don't blame the Islamist parties in Turkey -- they weren't the problem. The Bush administration screwed this one up by cajoling and threatening Turkey. And instead of doing the smart thing -- taking up the French offer of a 30-day wait, which would have given us time to at least get another heavy division on the ground in the south, and possibly gotten Turkey to go along with us -- they decided to plunge ahead anyway.

How did we lose Turkey? The Bush administration lost Turkey. Kessler and Pan's article provides the grim, dispiriting details of this tale of incompetence, blundering and foolishness.