MondoTrader:`Germany and Belgium came around to the side of the good guys and decided to honor their NATO committments over the weekend. Its nice to see western europe as a whole is not as bad as France.´
not quite yet - the decision that Turkey was being provided with "defensive assistance" was only made after a fundamental re-wording of the US/Turkish application on Nato's second level defensive planning committee which has not included France since Charles de Gaulle withdrew from the alliance's military structures in the 1960s. the final decision requires a unanimous vote of all NATO members - including France.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/17/international/europe/17IRAQ.html :
`The dispute was resolved when it was agreed to have the military staff of the NATO Defense Planning Council, which does not include France, make plans for Turkey's defense, specifically by sending Awacs air reconnaissance planes, Patriot missiles and chemical and biological warfare defense teams to Turkey.
France had objected to such a step on the grounds that the Security Council had not yet authorized the use of force against Iraq. Shifting the decision to the planning council rather than NATO itself was a way of circumventing French opposition.
Germany went along with the compromise, and the last holdout, Belgium, agreed to go along under pressure from other NATO members. Belgium dropping its long-held demand that any NATO decision be linked to authorization of force by the Security Council.
After the announcement tonight, France, Germany and Belgium issued a joint statement reiterating their opposition to military action unless authorized by the Council.´