by cofty 39 Replies latest social current
Boris Johnson's only been foreign secretary for barely a day and now this? I hope it wasn't his poem that pushed them over the edge!
Seriously. The implications as regards ISIS are trivial compared with the fact Turkey is a member of NATO and occupies an awkward position in the emerging new Cold War between Russia and the West.
If things go bad in Turkey it's not inconceivable Russia may want to move in troops. And the US would not stand for that.
That's what to worry about here.
Kate,
I think the US should be launching attacks in Syria because Al Assad is a war criminal that has slaughtered unarmed protesters time and time again and has used chemical weapons against his own people.
His bad governance has also given an opening to one of the worst organizations in modern history. ISIS has committed genocide against the Kurds and has slaughtered whole sale Christians, Yazidis, Poly Theists, Shiites, and other Muslims who are not "loyal Muslims".
This alone demands an international response to stop the mass killings of innocent civilians. But ISIS has not been content to stop there. They have taken the war to the rest of the world launching and inspiring attacks in dozens of countries against civilian targets.
I don't think the US should be the world police responding to every crisis. But when it comes to genocidal maniacs seeking to conquer territory and reign death across the globe I think force is the only rational response.
I don't think that's an impossible scenario by any stretch of the imagination SBF but I think there's a way to go before it becomes a real danger. I think Putin would be very wary of going into Turkey. He took a risk with the Crimea but kept the lid on the support for the proxy war in the east of Ukraine. He's a master brinksman. I think he knows unilateral encroachment into Turkey would really be risking the wrath of NATO and even he doesn't want an actual war with the West.
SBF - I agree with your analysis regarding Russia. Putin is a bold opportunist.
If anyone should be sorting Syria and ISIS out it's the rest of the Arab world. The only real chance of restoring the area back to some semblance of order is if Muslim peacekeepers are there. Where the hell are the Saudis, the UAE and so on? They should be leading things. We've given them enough weapons.
SBF,
I'd be surprised if Russia tried anything in Turkey as it would almost certainly trigger Article 5 of the NATO Collective Defense. Though, things do seem to be rapidly expanding out of control in that part of the globe so maybe Putin is just crazy enough to try it.
Ugh, all bad . . .
It's confirmed that the army have declared martial law.
If anyone should be sorting Syria and ISIS out it's the rest of the Arab world. The only real chance of restoring the area back to some semblance of order is if Muslim peacekeepers are there.
-k99
Yeah, because that worked out so well in Iraq with the Shiites waging war against the Sunnis and vice versa. I know it's a popular talking point here in the US but "Muslim" peace keepers are a bad idea. What we need are secular peace keepers so that both Sunnis and Shiites can thrive without one group persecuting the other group. If that's a secular peace keeping group which happens to have Muslims in it - cool. But any army put together by purely Middle Eastern countries is going to be exclusively one brand of Islam or another to disastrous effect.
What SlidinFast said.
Turkey"s military has a recent history of aggressively opposing the Islamization of its society.
If news items are accurate and based on their official and carefully chosen words, they are trying to stop the PM from converting Turkey to a caliphate sharia state.
What a mess.
I think the US should be launching attacks in Syria because Al Assad is a war criminal that has slaughtered unarmed protesters time and time again and has used chemical weapons against his own people. - codedlogic
If the US launches attacks on Syria, do you not think it's more probable the innocent people you want to protect from an evil president will be killed as the attacks are indiscriminate, especially air strikes, and the president won't be harmed?
I think good men should do something though, like provide a safe place for asylum seekers like they are doing.
