Kick Turkey out of NATO

Michael Rubin:
The core of the U.S.-Turkey relationship has been Turkey’s participation in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the bedrock security structure upon which the United States and Europe have depended for almost 70 years. As President Trump highlighted during his campaign and in the first months of his presidency, many NATO members only nominally contribute to the organization and few meet their commitments. Historically, Turkey has been different. Turkey has the second-largest army in NATO, and has more men under arms or in the reserves than France, the United Kingdom, and Germany combined.

Alas, after 15 years of Recep Tayyip Erdogan at Turkey’s helm, the Turkish army has changed radically. Almost every officer up to lieutenant colonel arose under the Islamist leader. In addition, Erdogan’s manipulation of promotions with fake plots — Ergenekon, Balyoz, and perhaps even the 2016 abortive coup — allowed him to replace the top brass. Turkey’s top generals today are loyal to Erdogan first, and Turkey a distant second.

Erdogan has declared that his goal is to raise a religious generation, and the military, the traditional guardians of Turkey’s laicism, have not been immune.

Turkey is currently bogged down in Afrin, an area of Syria populated by and controlled by Kurds. While Turkey says the Kurds in Afrin are terrorists waging war against Turkey, neither the Turkish foreign ministry nor Turkey’s defense ministry have been able to identify a single instance of a terrorist attack perpetrated by Kurds from Afrin. In reality, Turkey seeks both to ethnically cleanse the strategic zone and privilege Islamists who oppose the largely secular Kurdish population. Consider this last will and testament from one of the Turkish soldiers who have died in Afrin: “Brother this war is between crescent and cross, it's one of belief with denial, true faith with superstition, Tawhid with blasphemy.” And, here is another Turkish soldier making the Muslim Brotherhood’s "Rabia" hand signal. And Turkish exchange students in Imam Hatip schools (basically Turkish madrasas) while on Turkish government scholarships praise the Turkish military’s religious jihad in Syria.
...
Turkey is a worthless ally.  They failed the US in the Iraq war and they failed to fight ISIS.  I see no value in keeping them in the alliance.  The US should consider moving its airfields in Turkey to other countries in the region such as Israel and Jordan.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains