On July 23 virtually every news outlet in the United States ran some version of the following headline: “Turkey Joins the Fight Against ISIL; Opens Air Base to Coalition Forces; Washington and Ankara Agree to Safe Zone in Syria.” The media, being what it is, dubbed Ankara’s decision to order up airstrikes on Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s forces a “game changer”, which is what journalists say when they have nothing else to say, do not understand a situation and are itching to get back to covering Donald Trump.
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Samizdata quote of the dayAugust 30th, 2015 |
 5 comments to Samizdata quote of the day |
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The Turkish government is backing other dark forces in Syria.
Sadly there are many evil factions in the place.
Also the Turkish government is using the opportunity to hit the Kurds.
Anyone who believes Turkey is a reliable ally for anyone non-Islamic is a fool.
Anyone who believes Turkey is a reliable ally for anyone, even if they are also Islamic, is a fool.
True, so true.
That seems to be a very perceptive article. Certainly Turkey is no friend of the west generally or of the US particularly (and should never have been permitted to join NATO; whether it should be in the EU I leave to others). Its entry into the ISIS conflict at this particular moment in time is indeed curious, and I think Mr. Cook has it about right: the move is entirely politically motivated and has the specific objective of permitting Erdogan to attack Turkish Kurds without inducing objections from the US. I predict that any actions by his military forces against ISIS will be minimal, the very least he can plausibly get away with while remaining our nominal “ally” in that fight.
Cook observes that “anonymous U.S. military sources [are] telling the Wall Street Journal that they believe the Turks snookered the White House.” What, John Kerry being “snookered”? Incredible.