Remember the speeches? The evil Bush administration had bungled its way through foreign policy for eight years and the result was that the rest of the world now despised us. There apparently were a lot of meetings like this:
Of course, it is easy to overlook a lot of things if you are properly going to revolutionize the world political scene into a glorious socialist experiment of brotherly love.
I spent a lot of time in Turkey. They were staunch NATO allies and fulfilled the unenviable role of anchoring the eastern end of the alliance while both facing the Soviet Union directly and creating an anchor to the Middle East. We had our national disagreements and there was always the bubbling tension with the Greeks, but the Turks were our friends, our allies and our supporters. We reciprocated with aid, training and opportunities.
Now, they seem to have determined that the new global perspective of the United States is not the one which will best serve the future interests of Turkey. We haven't given them reason to oppose the madness of the emerging nuclear Iran or the genocidal intent of the terrorist elements of Syria, Lebanon and extremists in Iraq.
Exaggerated Response Bodes Poorly For Future
It should be noted that Hamas and Hezbollah are violent, terrorist organizations which are dedicated to the destruction of Israel. They infiltrate, undermine, conduct terrorist operations and rain rockets randomly on Israeli population centers. Israel, not unreasonably, joined with Egypt to declare a blockade of shipments to Gaza. That is not a denial of food, medical supplies or essentials to the people, but an inspection to insure that weapons to be used against Israel do not flow into the area unimpeded.
Turkey is not a part of that issue. Yet, they have interceded in the battle and as was inevitable there has been bloodshed. Now, the Turks express umbrage at the loss of life and demand apology. In the process, they dismantle an existing environment of mutual military cooperation which had previously existed.
This is clearly a region in which the US has a compelling national interest. This is a place where SecState Clinton needs to be very visible and involved. "Shuttle diplomacy" between Jerusalem and Ankara could be a good sign, if there were an intent by the Obama administration to reverse this course before it proceeds much further.
Israel is in the critical situation of having its very existence threatened. That means they cannot tolerate much before exercising their inherent right of self-defense. In this situation the numbers lining up on the two sides make that a frightening scenario because Israel will need to employ weaponry that compensates for manpower. We should clearly understand what that means.
3 comments:
When were you in Turkey? I spent a year flying Army C-12s out of Sinop in '87. Three trips a week to Istanbul and one a week to Incirlik. Returned '91 to JUSMMAT in Ankara for a year and a half. Was designated a USAF (MAC) C-12 IP and ACFE. Spent a lot of time in Incirlik, amongst other "places" with DAO pilots. Interesting place, it was. regards, Alemaster
Turkey has been a useful, albeit very uncertain ally. After reading this morning’s blog I revisited the Turkish government’s actions in 2003,when Gen. Tommy Franks wanted to move an Army division (as I recall it was the Forth Infantry Division) through Turkey.
A March 1, 2003 NY Times article entitled ‘Turkish Parliament Refuses to Accept GIs in Blow to Bush’, by Dexter Filkins, began like this: “The Turkish Parliament today dealt a major setback to the Bush administration’s plans for a northern front against Iraq, narrowly rejecting a measure that would have allowed thousands of American combat troops to use the country as a base for an attack. More Turkish lawmakers supported the measure than opposed it, but the resolution failed because the total number of no votes and abstentions exceeded the number of favorable votes. ...The final tally was 264 to 251, with 19 abstentions. …The defeat stunned American officials.”
Gen. Franks was a master at maneuver warfare, but the inability to move the Forth ID in from the north left us with far too few boots on the ground. America won the war to defeat the regime of Sadam Hussein, but very nearly lost the “peace” that followed. So despite the many misjudgments of then-SecDef Donald Rumsfeld, it was a failure of diplomacy (read Colin Powell’s failure) that ultimately had a major impact on the situation on the ground.
I hope folks keep this blog in mind, because the situation in Ankara is deteriorating as the Messiah’s administration continues its free fall. In addition to Israel, Juxtapose this with the significant problems on the ground in Afghanistan, and a looming confrontation with Iran.
I do not envy the Messiah's replacement when the time comes. he will have one hell of a mess to clean up and a lot of broken friendships to clean up and probably a lot of needless deaths to apologize for. Obama is directly responsible for every death that occurs due to his ineptitude and I hope that some day he is held accountable for his irresponsible actions.
Post a Comment