Obama Foreign Policy in a Brief: The President as Turkey
On October 5, 1938, Winston Churchill said in the House of Commons, regarding the Munich agreement in which Britain and France forced Czechoslovakia to cede the strategic Sudetenland to Germany, leading a few months later to that country’s extinction and a year later to World War Two:
“I will begin by saying what everybody would like to ignore or forget but which must nevertheless be stated, namely, that we have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat….”
Viscountess Astor shouted, “Nonsense!”
People ask me: How can U.S. government officials believe such silly and wrong things about the Middle East? Let’s go behind the scenes for a case study of how this works.
Here’s a November 28 transcript about Vice-President Joe Biden’s trip to Turkey and Greece. The main briefers are Biden’s national security advisor, Antony Blinken, and Special Envoy to the Organization for Islamic Cooperation Rashad Hussain.
The briefing shows the U.S. government’s bizarre love affair for Turkey’s Islamist regime, cluelessness about the “Arab Spring,” and disinterest in supporting Israel, contradicting the president’s frequent statements that he has done more for Israel than any predecessor.
For years the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has been waging war seeking to create a Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey. Apparently, the United States is getting increasingly involved in that war defined as, “Our assistance in the fight against PKK terrorism.” The U.S. government gave Turkey three SuperCobra attack helicopters and four Predator UAVs. Since that regime works closely with terrorist groups and Iran, one wonders how secure this technology will be and how far U.S. involvement is going to go.
Has there been a serious discussion in the United States about becoming a partner in the Turkey-PKK war and what might Turkey be doing in exchange for U.S. help? This concept of getting something for giving something is pretty absent in the Obama administration.
True, the Turkish regime has agreed to host a NATO radar system but only after grumbling a lot and imposing stringent conditions, especially that no intelligence be shared with Israel. And that’s no favor to the United States since, as the briefers note, Turkey is supposed to be a zealous member of NATO.
What else do you have, Blinken? Well, that Turkish government is visibly helping out a lot: in Afghanistan, Iraq, against the Syrian regime, in Libya, and Egypt. “So in many, many areas we’re working very, very closely with Turkey.”
Yes, but the problem is that the Turkish regime is working hard in those places to make itself leader of the region and to promote radical Islamism in all of those countries. In Egypt, Libya, and Syria for sure that means helping the Muslim Brotherhood, not to mention its work on behalf of Hamas and Hizballah.
Imagine if an American president in the 1970s had been besotted with Fidel Castro and explained how the Cubans were doing all that great work in Latin America.
Then the briefer throws out a cliché that means the exact opposite of what he thinks:
Turkey has a very important story to tell as a country that can…set an example for other countries that are making transitions in the Arab world, in the Islamic world, in North Africa.
But what is that example? The Turkish example used to be secularism, democracy, a lack of ambition abroad, a free enterprise economy, and a strong pro-Western orientation. That was the previous regime. The current regime likes Iran, Hamas, Hizballah, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Turkey “has set an example” all right. An example of how radical Islamist forces can pretend to be moderate as they not only gain state power but do so with America’s blessing. It is a very terrible example.
As one of the distinguished members of the “expert” cabal that pushed Iraq war to unsuspecting republican Americans, you have first have to pay your past dues. As for Turkey, as a non-Turkish speaking Turkey expert, you have as much credibility when you were selling Iraq war. That is, your interest is first and foremost in Israeli national interests as seen from extreme right. And from that vantage point, Israel can be a regional hegemon if only Turkey is boxed into Anatolia. That is why Israel long ago got into military alliance with Greece and Cyprus to corner Turkey. Turkey has enough military assets to counter Israel’s aggressive moves. The fact that Turkey plays hard ball, makes this likudnik go berserk. Now, there is more. If Israel does not cease its policy of encircling Turkey, Then it will face some encirclement of its own. Just watch Egypt and Syria.
Israel got into an alliance with Cyprus long ago?
When was that “long ago”, before or after Turkey got all uppity about the Gaza flotilla?
What about Turkey reneging on its NATO obligations and refusing American troops to northern Iraq in 2003?It seems that it was Turkey that went cold turkey with its NATO membership.
Turkey became an enemy of the United States as soon as it adopted Sharia Law.
Sharia Law is the true enemy of America. Under Sharia Law every male citizen, that has reached puberty, is required by Law to Jihad against America. If they speak out against the Jihad or Sharia Law they will be executed. They will be beheaded in the town square, publically hanged, publicly shot, ran over with government tanks or nerve gassed. These are all legal punishments under bloody Sharia Law in Turkey.
Under bloody Sharia Law, every male citizen in Turkey is an enemy combatant to America. So when America sends any funds or weapons to Turkey, America is funding its own Jihad.
WAKE UP AMERICA. ANY COUNTRY THAT HAS BLOODY SHARIA LAW SHOULD NEVER GET ANY FOREIGN AID OR ARMAMENTS FROM AMERICA.
1. fact: rubin and ALL israeli contacts with bush about ther iraq war counseled [begged] bush to NOT invade iraq.
2. fact: israel & turkey were close allies and israel avoided greece before turkey turned aggressive, fundamentalist islamic.
3. israel encircle turkey ? silly stuff here. are you suggesting israel controls ukraine, kazakistan, iraq as well as lebanon, jordan, greece and cypress ?
your claims of world-wide israeli control of so many foreign governments puts you into the category of classic jew-hatred
mstr: I don’t recall Barry Rubin’s views leading up to the Iraq War and was not reading him regularly at that time. I did find this from 2002:
http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/000681.html It includes this: “Rubin lists three reasons why a U.S.-Iraq clash may not necessarily be in Israel’s best interests.”
It seems as though Barry was his usual, rational self at the time. This is definitely unlike you whose extreme biases are quite clear.
Don’t worry, mstr will soon give you a link to what he seems to consider a “smoking gun”, which is an article where Rubin tried to analyze or predict the pros and cons of invading Iraq and overthrowing Saddam. Next to the short list of possible pros there’s a list of possible serious problems and complications, and then a warning that if the US does decide to do it, it must not stay in Iraq for long because a long stay will be disastrous. That, according to mstr, proves not only that Rubin supported the Iraq war, but that he enthusiastically pushed for it. And if you’d point to the many points in the article that contradict his claim he’d just ignore you and contiune to spam every other thread with the same claim, sometimes accompanied by the same article. That’s why I ignore him.
And of course, Rubin’s “enthusiastic push” was part of a darkly motivated conspiracy serving the Israeli “extreme right” (and nevermind that Rubin is or was associated with the Israeli Labor party) that fooled the poor naive Republicans. From the several articles I’ve read from Rubin from before the war (I wasn’t following him back then, I just read years later a few articles he wrote back then, so they may not reperesent his final stand on the matter), he nither expressed support nor opposition, but tried to analyze the possibilities for good or ill and warned about possible complications. If anyone read those articles the probable impact would have been to give the matter a lot of thought before doing anything. But there were other Jews who did support the war, including among Bush’s advisors. Does that, however, mean that they were working in the service of Israel? Isn’t it possible for a Jew to make an honest mistake? Everything a Jew does is part of a conspiracy? If the Israeli “extreme right”, the Likud or Israel in general were indeed controling American foreign policy and were capable of sending the American army to wars, the first country the US would have invaded and brought about regime change would have been Iran that Israel considers the number 1 existential threat and also knows that a regime change will most likely change that (Persia and Israel had friendly relations before the Islamic revolution, the people of Iran seem to hate the regime, and Iran is the only country in the Middle East where the people are more moderate in regard to Israel than the regime). But don’t confuse ignorant trolls or leftist academics with simple commonsensical facts.
The American army was sent by the American government on many occasions to defend American allies – in Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait and elsewhere. And there are American bases defending allies all over the world. But never in history was the American army sent to fight in defence of Israel. If Israel was controling the American government and had the American army at its disposal, wouldn’t you expect Israel to order the American army to defend her against her Arab neighbors rather than sacrifice her own young men?
The “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” claimed there was a global Jewish conspiracy to rule the world, part of which was to create wars and use the empires for war and conquest. The claim that Israel/Likud/Israeli “extreme right” controls American foreign policy and sends the American army to wars on behalf of Israel and against American interest is a subtle revival of this theme and of the Nazi (and other antisemites’) claim that the Jews control America. The fact that it’s being promoted in recent years by some “respectable” members of academia, and not just by ingonrant trolls and known and discredited antisemites, is to me a cause for concern. “The Protocols” also carried the name of an academic, who was also a clergyman and a respectable member of society, and it was promoted in the mainstream media of the time, all of which led to it fooling even some great and astute statemen, not to mention the average Joe. People should be careful with that because after the international community will remove the global menace to humanity and to world peace, namely the State of Israel, and perhaps also American and British Jews (since according to a documentary on British Channel 4 the Zionists control also the British Conservative party), you might discover that the problems with the Muslims still stick around, that wars have not disappeared from the world, and that financial crises still happen even though there are no more malevolent conniving Jews who conspire to bring all those about. Use your head very carefully and critically and make sure that it’s indeed Israel that’s behind all the problems before you allow your Muslim friends to exterminate us, because if you’re wrong there’s no way back. Make sure you don’t make a mistake this time.
will just have to stay alive then, keep ‘em pissed off, and save their asses just for spite.
Obama and his stooges are largely ignorant of and indifferent to foreign affairs, preferring when possible to sweep any foreign affairs problems under the rug, ignore them, deny them, or paint them in the nicest way possible. Obama and his stooges are largely indifferent to domestic American affairs as well so Obama and his gang are at least consistent in that regard.
Would that the Obama administration was merely indifferent to foreign affairs. They’d do less harm that way. Instead, they have adopted a “if you can’t lick’em, join’em!” policy to all the Islamists of the Middle East, leading with those who claim to be “moderates” — Erdogan and whoever winds up leading the next Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt.
The Turks can hardly be blamed for taking advantage of America. If America’s government has no respect for itself or won’t stand up for its own national interests, it shouldn’t expect other countries to reciprocate. Why should they? Ankara has not been given one good reason why it should defer to Obama’s America, which is content to lead from behind.
America’s main problem is Obama.
No, it’s all those people who voted for him in 2008.
Dr. Rubin might want to write about New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof’s interview today (December 8) with a young Muslim Brotherhood woman named Aseem Sondros.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/opinion/kristof-joining-a-dinner-in-a-muslim-brotherhood-home.html?_r=1
The gullibility of credulous Westerners about the MB and its Islamist program is astounding. Apparently, you cannot not be too credulous about Egypt’s new totalitarians. This is the parent group that spawned the PLO, Hamas and Al Qaeda.
For some people, its too disturbing to acknowledge reality. Listen to this from Kristof:
“So a bit of nervousness is fine, but let’s not overdo the hand-wringing — or lose perspective. What’s historic in Egypt today is not so much the rise of any one party as the apparent slow emergence of democracy in the heart of the Arab world.”
We won’t have to wait ten years to see what a repressive, intolerant and backward society an Islamist-run Egypt going to be. Just don’t expect Western intellectuals to acknowledge they got it all wrong. Oops!
Dr. Rubin has already said on his Facebook page that he intends to write a answer to Kristof’s column.
Kristof is neither gullible nor naive, he’s scared, and thinks he’s being crafty, saying what he says.
I read the headline as, “The President is a Turkey”
Me 2 8:-)
chris in Toronto – That’s one way; another would be: The President’s foreign policy is a turkey.
I read the same. But then I thought, no Obumbles is more like cranberry sauce — formless, runny, bitter and red.
December 8, or December 8;
That should have been
or something like that!
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9007276589
A Tomahawk was worse than this? Whose is the Turkey? I’m confused.
Hmm, a Turkey… Isn’t that the bird that celebrates Thanksgiving? It sure seem so in the case of this president.
And nice catch for Iran with the drone. Maybe we should celebrate that too.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-wrong-signals-to-iran/2011/12/06/gIQAvzNYgO_story.html
hxxp://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2011-12-08/iran-drone/51744902/1
If true (speculation in the USA article), the decision not to destroy the drone means the Chinese who have their own J-20 that desperately needs the advanced radar, now has one made in the good old USA. I don’t know the truth, but covering up such a Presidential failure to prevent a quantum leap by our enemies would be pretty bad. The overflights going on for some time are aggressive in themselves because Iran is crossing the red line. To balk over destroying the drone if really relatively intact would be a strategic mistake at the worst time. This leads some to think it might have been intentional. The problem is that it could have been intentional in a bad way or a good way (crash a trojan drone). The data obtained from a real drone might allow Iran to shuffle assets at the worst possible moment and make a strike more problematic. That is the bad way all this could be intentional fodder for conspiracists. Remember Reagan told Pakistan that Israel and India were preparing to launch a strike. This kind of logic is not new.)
hxxp://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/09/us-pakistan-nato-idUSTRE7B808S20111209
Again only fog about what really happened. Not much transparency regarding the alleged military coup, the Pakistani involvement in strikes on Afghanistan or the attack that killed a number of OBL-killing SEALS.
Gee, J-20s with our radar might be what Pakistan goes for. And watch Pakistan defend against drones too. Ah the Obama drone war……
hxxp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204770404577082822643123332.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Even this story is odd. The US has photos of the crash site. Then can they say they know that this Sentinel displayed in Iran was not possibly the drone that crashed and that telemetry and radar etc. was not recoverable. Failure to do so is is true makes no sense. Why the BS? Why several versions of the story within a few days directly stating the WH was consulted and made the call. Again, if we just blew up the head of the Iranian missile program and more than 30 ballistic missiles and then blew up another site, why would we flinch at landing a Tomahawk or some bombs from a Raptor on a top secret drone in some remote area in Iran?
And here’s another one. I thought the Raptor was an unnecessary fighter designed to penetrate Soviet defenses that no longer exist. Are you kidding me? I have been warning for almost six years that the incoming warfare environment will be DEW dangerous. And when Gates tried to lose bombers, drones were touted as the answer. In fact the Navy is projecting this drone bomber force as X-47s. So how are they “old”? Since the Cold War was over, Gates pulled the Raptor plug. There was a switch to Obama’s drone war with no upgrades to Raptors. So the F-35 uses the Sentinel’s radar? It is a though someone’s trying to gut rational strategy. Why? And Obama decided to leave an relatively intact drone there on the side of an Iranian mountain?
We don’t know the facts. But we do know there IS a chance we are idiots, or this administration screwed up big time. After all Iran was accused by Obama of trying to assassinate the KSA Ambassador as well as Congressional reps. Iran has killed US soldiers. They watch us vacate Iraqi airspace.
But we know media is relatively clueless, reactive to reality and proactive towards fantasy.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-09/iran-shows-off-downed-spy-drone-as-u-s-assesses-technology-loss.html
What exactly did the Americans or American/Jews expect from a man who says in his book that when it comes down to it, he will take the muslim’s side? Are we nuts! This says so much about us. So maybe we can change the pres, but we have let the universities get away with their liberal/socialist/communist preaching – so they could sway the minds of the students.
Some of you who rail against Romney will loose us this election. He is about the only one who the independents can support. Just keep thinking about the image of a couple of more supreme court appointment like kagan. Oh my heck!
Steve – have no idea what you are talking about! Am I missing something?
Goldi – I keep asking myself everyday, how could 78% of my co-religionists be so stupid? Of course, I ran into one last night who seems to continue drinking the Kool-Aid and continues mouthing Obama’s lines. Let’s see what the numbers look like come next November. BTW The Republican embrace of Israel has got to be authentic insofar as so few American Jews vote Republican.
The Rebulican party supports Israel in spite of the fact American Jews vote and donate mostly to the Democrat party because the majority of the Republican constituency is pro-Israel (and no, not just the religious right, though they are certainly an important part of it). According to a poll from a couple of years ago the majority of Americans have a positive opinion on Israel. When questioned about a list of different countries, Israel came 4th or 5th on the list (surely after Canada and the UK, and I believe the other two were Germany and/or Japan, but in any case it was some European country and/or Japan). About 50% of those who identified themselves as Democrats had a good opinion on Israel. With Republicans it was about 80%. IIRC Israel also came higher on the list of favorite countries among Republicans – something like third (after Canada and the UK), but I’m not sure. The percentage can change from time to time depending on current events and on current mood, it goes up and down over the years, but what’s consistent is that in all surveys over time a majority of Americans had a positive opinion on Israel, and at least in recent time Israel is more popular with Republicans than Democrats, and a large majority of Republicans support it. It doesn’t really matter if at time X it’s 70% and at time Y it’s 82% and at some other time it’s 75% – in either case it’s a significant majority and Israel is one of the best liked countries among Republicans. So the Republican support for Israel is genuine at the grassroots level.
In addition to that, only a minority of Americans have a favorable opinion of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria or the Palestinian Authority, and they are even less popular among Republicans.
So all in all one doesn’t have to break one’s head to figure out why most Republican politicians express support for Israel, one doesn’t have to look for the Jewish donors or voters to explain it.
Another interesting aspect to it is that according to my impression (admittedly, not a very scientific tool) the overwhelming majority of Americans, including Republicans, have no knowledge or very little knowledge of the ways Israel helped the US during the decades of our alliance. Most of them think it’s a one way street because Israel is a small country in a complex position in its neighborhood, too small and weak to be able to give anything. And yet most of them support Israel, which suggests their support is based on principles far more so than interest.
Newt Gingrich Remarks to Republican Jewish Coalition
http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/1211/what_appeasement_ab8c2295-b963-482b-958f-fb9114e2301d.html
Maybe what he meant to say was that he does not appease them, but actively promotes them.
well he answered the question about appeasing the enemies of Israel (and the US) with bragging about OBL. It doesn’t even make sense as an answer.
Another day at the office for Hopey McChange the telepromter in chief. Have those sea levels dropped yet?
Community organizing does’nt give you the experience needed to run the country. Gasp, Who could have known?
If you love whats going on now in the world imagine what another 4 MORE years of “change you can believe in” will deliver. Mushroom clouds in the United States perhaps?
Well, he did deliver the change part. And he never said what exactly he was going to change and into what he was going to change it, nor who was the hope for, – and nobody asked him, – so all in all he was pretty straightforward.
but, when he told them the truth, they didn’t believe him!
Actually the world-wide sea level does seem to have dropped for the last few years (at least by some measurements). That particular “campaign promise” may turn out to be the only one he’s kept.
can Obama keep making eyes and playing footsie with these bad guys before folks realize he’s no good?
Mr. Rubin,
Let’s not forget N Africa, SE Asia (even the uber-Catholic Philippines is experiencing a strong-armed push for Islam. As well as Southern Thailand), N, W and Central Europe having ever-increasing numbers of Islamic fundamentalists. Evidenced by their news agencies getting firebombed.
Islam, spreading ‘love’ and ‘comraderie’ wherever they are.
Mr Rubin you seem to be obsessed with Turkey, i suggest you to get over it. How did Turkish regime promote radical Islamism to Egypt, Libya etc..? Erdogan went there and encouraged them to embrace secularism and got criticized by Egyptians because of his words. But being Jewish/Israeli it is not surprising that you are trying to poison the minds of American people, especially the Evangelical Christians who put Israeli interests beyond American interests because of their religious beliefs.
And dont try to teach Turks what to do in a region where they ruled over 1000 years cause it makes you look stupid.
Yeah, for all of Rubin’s readers get their ‘marching orders’ and are ‘mind controlled’ by Rubin’s op-ed.
Timurlenk, your anti-Semitism is showing..
You hit the nail on the head regarding the Turks.. ‘rule’, not govern or give voice to the people but ‘rule’.
Europe and many other locations have another Crusades on their hands, smart guy.
I’m fuzzy on it but what has the Islamic faith contributed to better society as a whole the last 1,300 years? Okay, how about 1,000 years?
Timurlenk, if you live in Turkey then to some degree you can be excused for being ignorant of the news because Erdogan has routinely shut down the news sources not controlled by his political party, as well as having imprisoned and murdered journalists in Turkey who have reported on the actions of his Islamist authoritarian government.
However, since you have access to the internet, your ignorance cannot be excused when you could easily find examples of Erdogan’s attempts to expand Turkish hegemony outside of Turkey’s borders (this being in addition to its illegal occupation of Cyprus) by influencing Sunni-Majority Muslim Arab countries voting for the first time (such as Libya and Egypt) to follow the model of his own brand of authoritarian Sunni Islamist political party, the AKP.
BTW, you certainly didn’t disappoint with your racist accusations against Mr. Rubin, which is the typical response of an Islamist liar to being confronted with easily verifiable facts.
Are you proud of that 1000 years?
Are you proud you wouldn’t be an ally of the West during WW2 (an enemy in WW1 WW1)?
Are you proud Turkish prime time TV includes Valley of the Wolves? Kind of ironic as now one wolf who was your best friend threatens you with ballistic missile tests. You’re lucky Israel is helping contain this Syrian/Iranian axis.
Are you proud you threaten to fire on US workers for Noble working on rigs owned by a country you now occupy the northern part illegally?
Are you proud your fantastic formula for territorial rights are based on the continental shelf (to hell with the rights of the islands) which extends your exclusive zone off the shore of Israel and even down to Egypt?
Erdogan went to a Sunni country Turkey dominated once and told them to embrace the Turkish model. Ha, that’s exactly what they did?
Perhaps your military would be more prepared for Syria and Iran had you not jailed or forcibly retired your secular generals. Perhaps Hizb’Allah would have not grown so much had you not be such a friend to Syria’s Assad. Erdogan couldn’t even visit Gaza for fear of an attempt on his life. And not by Israelis.
Yes, your antisemitism is showing. Israelis poison the minds of Americans? You read Blumenthal too much. You are not as free as the Kurds in Iraq or Muslims now in Albania. Your internet is censored, your leading papers mouth pieces for Erdogan to such an extent that the EU bar is not met. You’ve always treated the Kurds like shit even though they lived where they do before you did. Erdogan won’t even say the Valley of the Wolves is blood libel (and it makes the US almost as evil as Jews) and he has also said Turkey’s role is to teach Israel how to behave. You know what I have to say about that.
Well Iraqi airspace is going to be very porous. Europe will not allow Turkey to call the shots in the eastern Med. What should have been a great evolution into a vibrant secular model has unfortunately through Erdogan become a drift towards the attitudes that made Turkey an ally of Germany once with an ample helping of religion. You might want to understand what secular means. Israel does it far better than Turks. At least there are Arab Israelis who would rather live in Israel than Turkey. And we Americans remember a country in need of protection against the Red Army. We almost went to nuclear war over what was essentially Jupiter missiles delivered to Turkey before most other allies anywhere in the world. That triggered Russia to put theirs in Cuba.
You can’t poison the minds of people who know history. And Americans understand yours.
Say hello to Victor when you have a chance.
Well, i am just expressing my opinions and i believe that i am right. Criticizing Israel/Jews is not and can not be equal to anti-semitism. You should never forget that while Christians were killing, expulsing Jews for hundreds of years Turks always saved them, even in WW2 Turkish bureaucrats saved hundreds of thousands of Jews, there was even a Turkic/Jewish empire in the history who fought against Muslims (Khazars)
It is very clear that Mr Rubin is trying to demonize Turkey because of it’s recent conflict with Israel (btw Israelis killed the Turks not the other way) and of course you are free to do that its not prohibited but if you do that by distorting facts and fabricating lies like “Turkey is promoting radical Islamism to ME” you get your answer.
We had a Coup d’état by the islamists in Turkey, everybody who criticizes the ruling party or Gülen is imprisoned or under threat. Just because of writing your opinions about Islam, saying you are an agnostic, you can be charged to 2 years. Nobody can demonize Turkey as much as Erdogan does, Mr Timurlenk the neo-ottoman. Have a nice sleep.
No you got that wrong! Coup plotters were caught with their pants down, that is why their neo-con enablers Pipes, M Rubin, B Rubin who openly advocate overthrow of a democratically elected government. Piss off Selen or whatever.
The Israelis killed the Turks that attacked the Israelis with metal bars and knives, threw one over the deck (which is like throwing someone from the first floor of a building), severly injured several, dragged bleeding stabbed soldiers downstairs to continue there whatever they were planning, and generally threatened their lives. The Israelis shot in self defense, killing the attackers before they’d kill them.
Criticism of Israel isn’t the same as lying about Israel, which is the MO of both Muslims and leftists these days in order to turn public opnion against Israel. And yes, they definitely won this war, but that still doesn’t turn lie to truth or to genuine “criticism”.
The Turks have not ruled in the region for 1000 years. What is now Turkey was part of the Byzantine Empire, with Constantinople as the capital. They conquered Constantinople in 1453. The Ottoman Empire lasted from then until World War I.
Ottoman Empire is just one of the 25-30 Turkic state. You heard Seljuqs, Timurids, Mughals etc?
The Ottoman Empire had surrounded Constantinople and conquered territory to the West long before taking the city itself. The Ottoman Empire is generally thought to have begun in 1300.
I am curious why N.Africa and the Levant have no “Look, Crusaders!” mentality in regard to the Turkish colonialism and imperialism that lasted far longer and included far more territory than either the original Crusaders or the later Europeans. Presumably this can be laid at the door of like religions but clear evidence of hypocrisy when it comes to proportions of morality doled out to the West and Islam itself.
Saying the Ottomans ruled over a region for 1,000 years when in fact their empire only extended into the middle east and N. Africa for some 400 years or more makes you look stupid.
Worse, you ironically invoke the name of Timurlane who checked the only 100 year old Ottoman Empire’s expansion some 600 years ago, well before it really burst out of Anatolia and beyond its successes to the West of Constantinople.
In the year 1011, the Ottoman Empire was nowhere and nothing, centuries in the future. What would comprise such peoples were a few miserable warlords squabbling over small power vacuums in the receding Byzantine and Fatimid Empires.
Things aren’t all peachy between Turkey and the ‘resistance’, Iran and Hezbollah. They’re on opposite sides in Syria, and disagreed about Bahrain. Iran just threatened to attack Turkey if the West struck Iran. They’re jockeying for influence in Iraq. I don’t like Turkey’s recent behavior, but it’s simplistic to say they’ve completely switched to the other side. They’re on the Sunni Islamist side, and Iran and Hezbollah are on the Shia Islamists.
It’s true both Islamists’ trends are enemies of the West, and work together against it (see the recent story about Iran and Hezbollah helping Al Qaeda do the Kenya Embassy bombings). But it’s simplistic to say they’re resolute allies. There are divisions there that the West should be playing up.
Sunni, Shia, Sufi, Salafi, Ahmadi – doesn’t matter. al-wala’ wa’l-bara’ says it all. Islam vs everything that lives. Game on (like for the last 1400 years!!)
Time to take out the trash and outlaw what is left of Islamonazi doctrine for good. The world body is sick – the cancer tumor needs surgical radiation therapy for eradication and to instill a “cellular muscle memory”. Need to have clean margins. Let’s get on with the sticky chemo business and take our chances with recovery.
Enough of this disease already. We WILL ALL die if we do not remove and kill forever this cancer of Islam. THAT is a certainty.
and for the trolls on this site: take this message back to your people. Tell them to choose life instead. You will not like us when we are angry (IF we ever get there – we are still stuck in stupid denial mode).
And I could have had a V-8! shit……
Isn’t it possible for a Jew to make an honest mistake? Everything a Jew does is part of a conspiracy?
Obama’s two biggest Middle East disasters will prove to be Iran (when he did not take advantage of the uprisings after their 2009 “elections”) and Egypt. There will always be Egypt, how Obama literally pushed that country into the arms of the radical Islamists, like the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists. This will have repercussions for decades to come and will be a direct threat to Israel. It will also probably start another Middle Eastern war, with both Egypt AND Libya firmly planted in the radical Islamic camps, ready to attack Israel as soon as Iran gets its nuclear bomb. The sad part about all of this is that it certainly did not have to happen. Obama has shown what inexperience, stupidity, and bias towards Muslim nations will get you in the Middle East. A swift kick in the butt.
I know a lot of people won’t agree with me but it seems that the direct threat to Israel is intentional.
a cynic to think so, it’s the plain truth, it’s intentional.
Obama doesn’t view the spread of islam as a bad thing.
Remember that he was schooled in an islamic school in Indonesia and feels that the 5 time a day Call to Terror is the most beautiful thing he has ever heard.
Obama did no such thing nor can you give details of such an event. Mubarak’s fall was a done deal and nothing outside of Egypt could’ve prevented it.
Anyone who knows the sequence of events from the death of Khaled Said to the self-immolation in Tunisia to reactions to the idea of Mubarak’s son inheriting power before all these events and also the specific sequence of offers by the gov’t and reactions from the protesters just prior to Feb.11 knows the U.S. had no influence over the outcome.
When it suits an argument it is said Egyptians hate Americans and when it suits another it is said they listen to us like masters; which is it?
Obama’s policy in the East is the British policy on Rhodesia. We all know how that turned out, don’t we? What is it with these people? Are they deliberate destroyers, or are they just utter incompetent cretins, or are they unwitting agents of the gods, who have finally had it with us because we elect these people?
you should ask that, everybody’s wondering the same thing, but for the cretins of course.
to paraphrase the ancient chinese taoist philosopher chuang-tzu, is obama a cretin dreaming he’s a wise man, or is he a wise man dreaming he’s a cretin?
the answer is, neither one nor the other. he’s a destroyer, wide awake, acting out his fantasy of the dreams of a father he never knew, who is a figment of his imagination.
True, the Turkish regime has agreed to host a NATO radar system but only after grumbling a lot and imposing stringent conditions, especially that no intelligence be shared with Israel. And that’s no favor to the United States since, as the briefers note, Turkey is supposed to be a zealous member of NATO.
Yeh, yeh! What happened in 2003? Everybody remembers(?) when that zealous NATO member denied the US passage to the north of Iraq and the consequent messup in the plans to invade Iraq..
Israel has a similar leg of the system which is integrated by the US and NATO so the threats are bogus from Erdogan. I bet he’s considering sharing now as Assad tests his long range ballistic missiles. Assad has lots of nerve gas.
KSA now says they are considering a nuclear weapon program.
Not much trash talking from Erdogan about Eastern Med oil or Flotillas. Cyprus is about to assume EU leadership.
‘United States about becoming a partner in the Turkey-PKK war and what might Turkey be doing in exchange for U.S. help? ‘
NOTHING !!!!!!!!!!. Erdoğan’s dream of no-ottoman Sultanate is getting ready to turn into Turkish nightmare. The Turks are fighting the Kurds since the end of WWI with no avail. Just couple weeks ago Erdoğan finally acknowledge and apologize for Dersim areal bombing in early 1930′s. Is anyone in the right mind think that the Kurds will accept Erdoğan apology. If there is any ethnic group in the ME that deserve a statehood are The Kurds. It is time for American left to demand the same rights for The Kurds as they demand for The Palestinians which they are not an ethnic group or a nation. I would like to see the same vigor of demonization of Israel apply to Turkey for treatment of The Kurds. Sooner or latter Turkey will split regardless what America or the West wants. Just wait until U.S leaves Iraq and Iran moves in, then watch Iraqi Kurdistan declare independence. Once this happens all hell will break loose.
President Obama very recently embraced Prime Minister of Turkey Reccip Erdogan.
There’s a lot to be said for a stir up the hornets nest, divide and guide the chaos, in a lawless tribal region, and a prudent president would not exclude the Kurds from that great game or dump one’s historical allies simply on a whim and a hope for a political thaw in the Islamic season. The Kurds certainly bisect a large area overlapping several problematic countries that could be constrained or tied down with a smart foreign policy utilizing the Kurds and their national interests. Surely a Kurdish national consciousness is as real as the recent Palestinian construct that has left the station to keep the region derailed. As I recall, wasn’t Saladin a Kurd? Why leave the Arabs and Persians and Turks to milk the Kurds for their parochial interests?
Hi there, is it rite to just study from books not to pay a visit world wide web for newest updates, what you say friends?