Turkey Season

I suppose this was inevitable:

Ankara has recently moved to diminish Turkey’s military dependence on the West, including last month inaugurating rocket testing and a radar technologies facilities. Both are part of Turkey’s effort to boost a fast-growing arms export industry that also is supplying its own forces with locally built tanks, warships, drones, missiles and—by the republic’s centenary in 2023—a jet fighter.

Ankara has also rejected bids by its NATO allies for a missile-defense system in favor of a Chinese-built one that one these partners say is incompatible with their technology and threatens intelligence cooperation.
…
“Turkey is recasting itself as a nonaligned country in its rhetoric, which is making NATO very uncomfortable,” said a Western official in Brussels. “Turkey’s stance will be an issue for years to come, not only if the Chinese missile deal happens, but also because of its politics.”

Turkey’s membership in NATO is becoming meaningless, a process which started a dozen years ago when they refused passage for our troops during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Anyway, we’re no longer the strong horse in Mideast power politics, and Russia, China, and Iran will pick up whatever is left — and I guess we can hope and pray or whatever that our confused allies manage to defend themselves.