INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey -- It takes commitment to see any project through to completion. While those Florida Marlins fanatics who were hanging their sign on the Metro Rail overpass obviously lacked forethought, they were at least committed enough to see the project through to completion -- much to their chargin in this case. In baseball, "closers" -- pitchers who pitch only the final inning of a game - earn bunches of money for their ability to register the final few outs for the winning team.

If you're at all like me, you've started a project or two only to quit before closing the deal -- much to my wife's chargin in my case. As we near the end of our inspection we must remember that we can't quit; that we've got to close the deal. That means we need to continue to focus on the tasks at hand just as we have since the inspection began. While New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner may have millions of dollars, or Turkish Lira, to hire one or two "closers" for his baseball team, the fact is at Incirlik there are no one or two people to call in for the "last inning" of our inspection; at Incirlik we're all closers!

As we near the ninth inning of our inspection, the threat of "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory" is real and we must guard against this threat by staying focused and committed and by doing what we know how to do; in short by closing the deal. If we do this, we'll end up with a big "win."