Turkey dubs Syria 'a clear threat', vows to retaliate

Yahoo ^

[Sub-Driver]

Turkey dubs Syria 'a clear threat', vows to retaliate AFPAFP – 3 hrs ago

Turkey branded its former ally Syria "a clear and imminent threat," on Tuesday as its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vented his fury over the downing of a Turkish fighter jet.

In his most outspoken criticism of the Damascus regime, Erdogan vowed to retaliate against the "heinous act" and promised a change of military attitude to any Syrian officer approaching the common border.

"The rules of engagement of the Turkish Armed Forces have changed given this new development," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told parliament following the shooting down of F-4 Phantom jet Friday. The two pilots are still missing.

Any risk posed by Syria on the Turkish border will be "considered a threat and treated as a military target," he said in a jam-packed room of lawmakers who frequently interrupted the address with applause.

Erdogan said his government would retaliate "with determination" and take what he called the "necessary steps by determining the time, place and method by itself".

[Tzimisce]

...which side are we rooting for here?

[MeganC]

Will Russia back up Syria against Turkey?

[stuartcr]

Good question

[GonzoGOP]

which side are we rooting for here?

Fundamentalist Islamist government in Turkey fighting Fascist Islamist government in Syria. Rooting from the sidelines while munching popcorn appears to be the order of the day. Nobody here we like.

[frankenMonkey]

...which side are we rooting for here?

Both.
Let them beat each other to bloody hell. Keeps them distracted from messing with Israel.

[robowombat]

With words only I suspect. Russia is only at the start of trying to rebuild its conventional military capabilities. A costly and humiliating engagement with Turkey in the rough country of eastern Turkey which would also activate the NATO ‘An attack on one is an attack on all’ pledge would only make things much worse even if the NATO response was mostly press communiques.

[robowombat]

The Turkish military are more than a match for Syria even before the current near civil was. Turkey should be encouraged to involve itself as it will give the US and the UK coverage to quietly walk away from this imbroglio. A turkey distracted by a prolonged stay in a violently broken Syria would be to our interests as Syria would be finished as a player in the mid-east political drama for a long while. So the Islamaciizing regime in Turkey would be mostly tied up with managing the military presence in Syria. Syria would be finished as an Iranian ally. Which among other things would end any use of latakia as a Syrian staging base for their forward deployed naval scheme . (Actually a plan to eventually send surface units carrying cruise missiles with eventual nuke warheads to the Med disguised as fleet auxiliaries to support the small Iranian surface combatant element in the Med.) All in all the US should encourage Turkey in any way possible to intervene in Syria sooner rather than later.

[treetopsandroofs]

Someone on Hussein’s team kind of figured out what “Wag the Dog” was about, now they’re just scripting the media story to tell us who to support.

It was easier a while back to get the leftist buffoons to support muslims over Christians in Bosnia, but they have to be more careful with the propaganda this time.

The Great Clinton didn’t have to compete with as many reality TV shows to get the morons all worked up for his raids against empty tents and aspirin factories.

It will be interesting to see how well the Hussein Head media can stir us up to distract us from Hussein’s War on America.

[EEGator]

They all die?

[edcoil]

Lost one aircraft and they are going to do what?

President Bush lost and aircraft to two to friendly firm and president obama lost a drone to Iran and we did nothing.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I remember Turkish troops and South Korean troops were stationed temporarily in Japan in the 1950s. There was wide argument about which was meaner.
Setting aside the Turks’ more curious habits, we settled on the SKs since they liked to kick the crap out of each other just for fun.

[MeganC]

Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty would not apply here. Turkey would be the aggressor engaging Syria which is a Russian ally. NATO would be under no obligation to support Turkish aggression.

Also, it’s not out of line to note that Turkey has long considered Syria to be Turkish territory that was lost at the end of the Ottoman Empire. Edrogan may well be using the current situation in Syria to try to gain some territory.

[ichabod1]

Sadly, I have to pull for Syria because we don’t need them flipping slammy too.

[robowombat]

Presumably Turkey would claim self defense from Syrian attacks. If the Syrians truly are stupid shelling Turkish territory and shooting at patrolling Turk aircraft over and over again with escalating Turkish responses would be the way to go. This would play out amid a steady escalation of shooting between the two states. In any case a real Russian attack of even limited nature on Turkey would engender true rage in the US foreign policy and military establishment irrespective of party affiliation. One thing that seems to always be true about territorial disputes is the US is going to be firmly anti-Russian. The Dept. of State nurtures deep seated Russo-phobic attitudes and they are shared by the CIA and a good bit (but by no means all) of the armed forces. So irrespective of the technicalities of the case any Russian attack on Turkey would immediately , as far as the US is concerned, be blown into a true major crisis and the US would be quick to bilaterally menace the Russians. I don't say i agree with this attitude only that it exits in DC. The US foreign policy establishment remains as anti-Russian as it was anti-Japanese before 1939.

[crosshairs]

If it involves muzzies killing muzzies I’m all for it.

[Sea Parrot]

Hey Turk, if you are going to shoot, don’t talk, shoot.

[Rick_Michael]

I sincerely dislike views like yours. There definitely is a clearly crazy element within the muslim community, but to generalize and feel death as merely okay based on that factor alone (ie being muslim)....no.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

History doesn’t repeat but it does rhyme.

WWI started with a couple of 2nd or third rate powers (Bosnia and Serbia) while a bunch of superpowers egged them on (Austria, German, Russia).

The current Syria/Turkey issue seems not a little bit like that.

[servantboy777]

Destruction of Damascus??

We shall see.

Isa 17:1 The oracle concerning Damascus. “Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city And will become a fallen ruin.