Turkey set to invade northern Syria, White House says, raising concerns for Kurdish fighters

Turkey deserves all the hell that will befall it as it betrays secularism and embraces Islam and Sharia.

Turkey is not a friend to the Western values of “...life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It has turned its back on the West. The best possible outcome is that the Islamic tyrants, and their fellow wannabes like Turkey, cut each other throats and leave life, quickly.

Turkey is the enemy of the rational mind.

 

I don't know how your media shows Turkey. We have still a secular country.
Erdogan (I never voted for him, and I really want he to go) is religious man, but this does not affect Turkey's secular regime. We have 98% muslim population (mainly Hanefi sect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanafi ) so hearing about Islam is very very normal. But people are not religious.

Being a gay or lesbian is not seen as crime. There are many gay clubs and bars in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bodrum so on. Also we have many homosexual singers. Or happiness level is not about politics, it is about money. People usually work more than 12 hours but earn little so they are not happy.

Turkey has been existing very before than rational mind. You are right a bit. Erdogan took some liberties, for example I can not insult him. He is like Putin. Putin is Erdogan's role model.

 

The problem with Turkey isn't that it is too weak, but that it is potentially too strong! Which is why the pro Israel crowd ultimately want Turkey to be unraveled as well. The more assertive, and stronger, you become, the more you will face what Iran has faced. And while the Russians might not be interested to go in the same direction as the Israelis on these issues, the Russians are always amenable to make a deal. Don't rely on them too much. Like Iran, you have had enough wars and experience with them to know.

In the meantime, for Turkey to be able to be genuinely powerful, it will need to find ways to have an economy that isn't amenable to being sunk the minute the US/EU decide to sink it. Even China, which is much stronger than Turkey with many more levers than Turkey to counter economic threats to it, cannot be truly independent when its economy is ultimately tied to the same global economic system with the US dollar at its helm. Turkey has a way to bypass that, and along the way to find an ideology that can attract hundreds of millions of people in the ME instead of alienating everyone who isn't a Turk (which is what ultra Turkic nationalist ideology does), while also helping a true renaissance in Islam by searching within its own multi-cultural traditions. Following the French, ultra secular model, will not get you any farther than it took the French where (before the era of Pax Americana in Europe) there were more changes in regime in France than you find even in your typical banana republic. Pitting one half of your population to be diametrically opposed in everything except language against the other half isn't the right answer for Turkey. Especially for Turkey, which is the true cross-roads of Western and (Middle) Eastern civilizations.

Visit Konya and you might find the right inspiration for where Turkey needs to go. Which isn't either pretending to be European (when at least half but in reality more, of its population are simply nothing like Europeans culturally). Nor is about pretending to be of some Turkic race (when most of its population don't exhibit any real Turkic features). Nor is about attaching Turkey to a pro Arabist message in Wahhabi (or even traditional Sunni) Islam. Most Turks certainly don't like to be anything like that either. (If anything, anti-Arab sentiments in Turkey run much deeper than even in Iran to the point they look racist to me).

Search deep in your own history and be the best you can be. You will then have millions follow you as you are situated in a place where you can bring a diverse enough crowd to support you. But go on the route of fascism and pseudo nationalism, and you won't get far. That is for sure.

 

Appreciate the honesty, but your secularism is only an ember of a fire long burnt out.

 

The US uses their allies like toilets? Korea?

Yeah, our ally in Korea is now one of the most advanced and prosperous nations on Earth, while our enemy's country is basically an open-air prison camp ruled by a megalomaniac warden.

Which looks more like a toilet to you? America's Korean ally, or America's Korean enemy?

 

I've been to Istanbul. I've seen the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque. I also smelled the tear gas wafting across Taksim Square, which was Erdogan's contribution to the celebration of gay rights, and women's right.

Yeah, but tell me again how my TEEVEE is lying to me about Turkey.

 

It was better to be a US puppet than a Soviet puppet (or being a hermit kingdom) during the cold war years. And those puppets who climbed the ladder by their boot straps, usually first offering cheap products because of having a cheaper labor force, and then acquiring wealth to develop products which required more investments and the kind of workforce they have trained in the meantime as they were growing their economies, have had it good living off America's Ponzi scheme known as the global economy.

Of course, being an American puppet isn't always necessary. You can be semi-independent, so long as you don't try to upset the apple cart too much, and maybe you will get the chance to follow the Chinese model as well.

The cold war years, alas, are over. While there was a time when American foreign policy valued stability and supported anyone who would guarantee that stability without upsetting the apple cart (whether despot or democrat), and had an incentive to prove being allied to the US makes you better off than if you were allied to the opposing camp, none of that necessarily applies these days.

 

Some people want democracy and progress, and some don't.

What did the Egyptians choose when they were granted the opportunity to exercise their democratic right to choose during their "Arab Spring"?

 

It's good to see you again, my friend.

To your point about thinking big and building bridges, that requires effort on both sides. A little military and rhetorical restraint on the parts of both our leaders would be enormously helpful for both our countries right now.

 

The people who have never been handed a flag at Arlington National Cemetery will never fully appreciate that.

Syria isn't worth another drop of American blood. It's time to bring our men and women home.

 

Turkey has been overrun with refugees three times since Gulf War 1.. What's wrong with you?

Turkey sheltered European Jews in the run up to WW2.

 

Egypt also rejected the Muslim Brotherhood back in the days of Nasser. The US and UK tried to drive Egypt into the arms of the Soviets...

 

Thank you Russia. They understand our nation's security concerns!
And finally Ankara and Damascus will start peace dialogues with affords of good brothers Russians.

 

Go ahead and lie down with the Russian dogs.

Enjoy your fleas.

 

Hahahaha jealous! Anyway we are still your most important ally in Middle East. We expect you to understand our security concerns. By doing so you have been forcing us to be close with Russians.

Obama Administration started those wrong doings! Your and our army could fight against ISIS since the beginning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Brigade

 

So much for our allies in the region.

 

Admittedly, this was not addressed to me. But I would just say that the "Massive occupation force of US troops that I would suggest would be...well, zero.

I think a few well-placed cruise missiles should accomplish the job...

 

You are correct, in both of your points.

But I would very much like to see that expulsion. (It probably will not happen, considering Turkey's geopolitical importance, as a buffer state, against both Iran and Russia.)

 

Well, I believe that this is something that we should be doing.

And we certainly should not be cozying up to the evil dictator, Bashar al-Assad.

 

We should see...now let me think a moment...I would say zero.

If we use cruise missiles, instead of boots on the ground--as we did in Syria last year--there is really no need for any American casualties.

 

Well, I believe that this is something that we should be doing.

And we certainly should not be cozying up to the evil dictator, Bashar al-Assad.[/QUOTE]
Why do you think we should be there? We are not deposing Assad, we have been cleaning up the mess we made when we tried to depose him through ISIS. The Kurds took the opportunity our alliance gave them to establish themselves in that Northern area, that was why they were allied with us, not some deep desire to aid the US interests. We have run our course there and it's time to either leave or state an objective to our continued presence.

 

Yes, I am jealous of your close ties to Russia.

Said nobody ever.

 

It's not even a shadow of its former secular self.

 

Obviously, he was dead wrong.

 

US's most important allies in the ME are Israel and SA. Turkey is a wild card........NATO's problem child. This is obviously a deal concocted between Trump and Erdogan. We don't know the terms but you can bet there's something in it for Trump.