There are, naturally enough, efforts afoot to nail down a cause for the suicide bombings that have latelyclaimed at least 50 lives in Istanbul. Turkey, after all, did not join the "coalition of the willing".Although influential members of its ruling elite were keen to chip in, the option was rejected by parliament -and, to its credit, the nation’s powerful armed forces chose not to the overrule the democratic verdict. Andwhen Turkey decided to accede to an American request for assistance in policing postwar Iraq, its offer oftroops was rejected by Kurdish members of Iraq’s so-called governing council.