Turks, Old and New, Here and There

Fez On, Fez Off

Turkish/Western relations then, as catalogued in the documentary film
"From Russia, With Uranium". 

Turkish/Western relations now, size 10 & 1/2 B

 

Spengler: "After its painful experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. won’t put boots on the ground beyond the few thousand special forces now deployed in Syria. The Kurds fought as a NATO auxiliary against ISIS and wanted nothing more than an American alliance. The Turks, meanwhile, are NATO members in name only and are hostile to key American interests. Among other things, Turkey is helping Russia to bypass Ukraine in delivering gas to southern Europe via the Turkstream pipeline. The Turks are bargaining hard with Russia, but ultimately will play ball.

 

Nonetheless, Washington is paralyzed by fear that Turkey might leave NATO if it stands behind the Kurds. “Nobody wants to be the guy who lost Turkey,” an administration official said. ...

 

For Washington, the path of least resistance was to use the Kurds to fend off ISIS and then hang them out to dry. That left the Kurds with no other choice but to turn to the Assad government and its Russian backers. As a result, Russia is now the key ally both of the Assad government and the Kurdish militias that the U.S. envisioned as its boots on the ground in the region. ...

 

The projected Kurdish Border Protection Force was the last American piece on the Syrian chessboard, and Washington abandoned it. It is hard to see what sort of leverage the United States can acquire now.

 

“Americans play Monopoly, Russians chess,” was the title of an essay I published ten years ago in this space. For the U.S. administration, American assets in the region are like hotels on the Monopoly board, to be protected individually and piecemeal. No unified strategy ranks their relative importance or gauges whether they might be sacrificed for a larger goal. Russia views its assets as pieces on a chessboard whose only function is to contribute to the single goal of winning the game. They can be sacrificed ruthlessly when circumstances require it. Washington has no strategy -- that is, no envisioned end state -- for Turkey, Syria, or Iran. And if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.".......

"My pet."

Washington D.C. may be "paralyzed by fear", but President Trump is not. The only one who "lost Turkey" is the dictator who has reversed Attaturk's democratization of Turkey. We shouldn't abandon our Kurdish allies for any tin-horn bully. Beware the Blob, sir.