„Let’s nuke Washington!

or Turkey’s alternative dreams

The official EU dreams of the future strongly resemble the words pronounced by the
German emperor William II shortly before 1914 : „I am leading you to a bright future!” At
those distant and bad times few questioned the promise, although the few turned out to be
right. There were many who believed it and they were dupes. How about today? Can we
reasonably believe in the official historical EU optimism which insidiously suggests that bad
times are followed by good times and bad divided Europe by good united Europe and of
course the bad Christian West by the good Islamic West? It goes without saying that bad
politicians have been long since replaced by good politicians, as we all know, don’t we?
There are still a few things that if done will make this inevitably bright future ahead of us
even brighter. What is meant is i.al. Turkey’s full membership in the EU, some more laws and
treaties signed behind the closed doors. These and other things will make the return to the
pessimistic past impossible. This is the EU dream that we are massively told to dream too. We
belong to the same dream community, don’t we? Unfortunately, we are allowed to have
access to fewer and fewer alternative dreams dreamt inside and outside the EU. And it’s a pity
because they’re worth knowing, if not simply worth dreaming. Comparing alternative dreams
seems quite useful and practical. Turkey e.g. has plenty of alternative dreams to offer and I’d
like to focus on one of the most pupular of them recently, namely that of nuking Washington
DC... Yes, I also feel much relief as they might dream of nuking closer targets - Brussels,
Vienna, Athens, Sophia or Warsaw. So far they don’t. Or at least it is not known they do.
The Turks have a very nice surprise for someone curious about learning their dreams of
the future. And it is not a Turkish Centre for Future Studies, still to be built under the
supervision of the Directorate for Islamic Affairs (Diyanet) and the General Staff. It is rather a
small novel called „Metal fırtına” or „ The Metal Storm”. It is the bestseeling book on the
Turkish dream market. Its rabidly anti-American and jingoistic war rhetoric stirs the national
Turkish heart to its very bottom. It sold already 150 000 copies - a record number for Turkey
which is famous rather for her martial than literary exploits.
 The two Turkish dream masters who have thus won the hearts and minds of the Turkish
reading public are Burak Turna and Orkun Ucar. They have demonstarted excelelnt practical
and literary skills. One is a military affairs reporter, the other a science fiction author. As
most dreamers do, they their dreams developed from a minor incident in real life. On July 4,
2003, when American soldiers arrested 11 Turks planning to assassinate the Kurdish
governor in Kirkuk they saw their chance in the field of political literature. With the present
massive deployment of the Turkish Army in the same region and Turkish aggression there
underway, we may suppose that this times the Turks will not bungle their job and they will do
what they so ignominiously failed to do in 2003.
By a strange coincidence so typical of many dreams "The Metal Storm" is set in the year
2007 A. D. The plot commences by depicting the real incident somewhere in Northern Iraq.
But then the story takes a different turning. The US troops open fire on the intrepid Turkish
marines hunting the ubiquitous Kurdish terrorists. The Turks shoot back in self-defence and
hostilities follow. The U.S. knows no mercy. Its tanks and artillery invade Turkey from Iraq
defending the Kurdish terrorists. The Turkish armed forces are beaten in bloody battles but
the infidels suffer extremely heavy losses. The U.S. bombers hit Istanbul and Ancara and
obliterate the two cities. In despair Turkey turns to the European Union and Russia to form a
larger coalition against the US and stop the aggression. But in vain! The cowardly and cynical
infidel politicians abandon Turkey. At the last moment it is the traditional Turkish heroism
and idealism that saves the day for her. A Turkish patriot steals a nuclear warhead from the
US Incirlik Air Base in Southern Turkey. Assisted by another Turkish patriot and a secret
agent , who this time acts on his own initiative having no special guidelines from the Turkish
Intelligence Service (MIT) or the Turkish General Staff, they take revenge upon the wicked
aggressor for his crimes against humanity and Turkishness. The agent manages to smuggle
the nuclear bomb to the US and detonates it in a pathetic scene in a park in Washington . The
dream of every terrorist comes true at last ! Something much much better than 9/11 is effected
! The U.S. capital is levelled to the ground and contaminated for centuries by radiatioactivity
while indomitable Turkey's honour and valour are restored to fuel its struggle against
America.
The book seems by all means worth translating into English and popularizing. Filming it
would be definetly the best way to make the Turkish dreams known to the wider American
public.
Still , bearing in mind what Cem Kucuk , one of the editors of "Timas Yayinlari", the
book's publisher , said in an interview ( " The book is fiction but in Turkey everyone is
questioning whether there will eventually be a conflict between America and Turkey.") an
imaginative reader of "Metal Fırtına" might be tempted to suggest a few changes to assure a
better outcome of the war for Turkey. But, frankly, we would not like to disturb and improve
collective Turkish dreams which look quite optimistic anyway.

Concluding I think that if the Turkish public has a right to envisage the future according
to their own covert wishes, longings and dreams, then the public in the West has an even
more legitimate right to be fully informed of that and interpret it according to their own
sensibilities and historical experiences. This continent has been exposed to the Turkish
‘dream’ for 600 years. Everywhere this „dream” turned out to be a nightmare for those
affected by it. To prevent this nightmare from affecting us again we have to know and oppose
all its present metamorphoses and mutations.