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Are Trump and Putin Right?
Townhall.com ^ | December 1, 2015 | Pat Buchanan

Posted on 12/01/2015 11:46:16 AM PST by Kaslin

Monday, MSNBC's "Morning Joe" hosted a spirited discussion with Donald Trump on whether he was right in asserting that Muslims in New Jersey celebrated as the towers came down on 9/11.

About Muslim celebrations in Berlin, however, there appears to be no doubt. In my chapter "Eurabia," in "State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America," [2006] is this quote from The New York Times Magazine, exactly 10 years ago.

"Parallel to the declarations of 'unconditional solidarity' with Americans by the German majority, rallies of another sort were taking place in Neukolln and Kreuzberg. Bottle rockets were set off from building courtyards, a poor man's fireworks, sporadic, sparse and joyful; two rockets here, three rockets there. Still, altogether, hundreds of rockets were shooting skyward in celebration of the attack, as most Berliners were searching for words to express their horror."

Neukolln and Kreuzberg are neighborhoods of "gastarbeiters," Muslim Turkish workers who came to Germany in the millions to work in menial jobs beginning around 1960.

While the flap over what Trump saw persists, a more serious question has arisen: Is Turkish strongman President Recep Erdogan trying to draw the United States in on his side in the war in Syria, and into a confrontation with Vladimir Putin's Russia?

A little history is in order. Not until 1952 did Turkey join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, all but two of whose original 12 members were on the Atlantic or North Sea.

Yet bringing in Turkey was a ten-strike, putting NATO on the Dardanelles and Bosporus and on the southern coast of the Black Sea, right up to the border of Stalin's Soviet Union.

But the world that made Turkey such a strategic asset has vanished. Armenia and Georgia are no longer Soviet republics but free nations. The Soviet Empire, Warsaw Pact, and Soviet Union no longer exist, and Balkan nations as well as the Baltic States are members of the EU and NATO.

Turkey is no longer the secular nation-state of Kemal Ataturk, but increasingly hearkens to the Islamic Awakening. In Syria's civil war, her behavior has not been what one might expect of an ally.

The Turks left the door open for jihadists to join ISIS. They are accused by two Turkish journalists, now facing life in prison, of shipping arms to ISIS. The Turks are charged with permitting ISIS to move oil from the Islamic State into and across Turkey. Russia, which joined the U.S. in bombing the tanker trucks that move the oil, charges Erdogan's son with being involved in the black market trade with the caliphate.

Instead of battling ISIS, Erdogan is fighting Kurds in Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan and is threatening to attack Syria's Kurds if they cross to the west bank of the Euphrates.

Ankara is also becoming dictatorial and repressive.

Erdogan has dismal relations with Egypt and Israel and appears hell-bent on bringing down Bashar Assad in Syria. Yet, Assad's army remains the sole force standing between ISIS and Damascus.

Erdogan's Turkey has its own separate national agenda. While understandable, what is of concern is that Erdogan could escalate his clash with Assad's regime into a clash with Putin's Russia, which is backing the Syrian regime -- and drag us into his war.

And the longer this war goes on, the greater the likelihood of something like this happening.

For the operative premise of NATO is that an attack against one is an attack against all. What do we do should Erdogan provoke a Russian attack on his aircraft, and then invoke Article V and call on all NATO nations to come to Turkey's defense against Putin's Russia in Assad's Syria?

Turkey's shoot-down of the Russian Sukhoi Su-24 makes this more than a hypothetical question.

While the Russians have indicated they are not going to make this a casus belli, Putin charges that the U.S. was given advance notice of the flight plan of the Russian plane.

Were we? Did we authorize, know about, or suspect Erdogan was planning to shoot that Russian plane down? This is no small matter. And Americans have a right to know.

Then there is the geostrategic question.

The world of 2015 is nothing like Truman's world of 1952 or Reagan's world of 1982. The adversary we confronted then, the Soviet Empire and Soviet Union, has not existed for a quarter century.

Why then does NATO, created to defend Western Europe against that adversary, still exist?

Why are we still committed to fight Russia not only to defend Germany, but Estonia and Erdogan's Turkey, and if the neocons get their way, to be committed in perpetuity to fight Russia for Georgia, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Moldova, Ukraine, Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk?

If the history of the 20th century teaches anything, it is that war guarantees all too often lead to war.

But in this war against "radical Islamic terrorism," who is the real ally: Erdogan, who has been aiding and abetting Islamic jihadists in Syria, or Putin, who has been bombing them?


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Russia
KEYWORDS: 911; donaldtrump; elections; globalsecurity; nato; patbuchanan; pitchforkpat; trump; trumpwasright; turkey; vladimirputin

1 posted on 12/01/2015 11:46:16 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

I all but gave up on Pat Buchanan, but it seems he’s going back to some solid work and critical thinking.

We in no way should we be supporting Turkey and thus ISIS, but Obama is. I think we know why.


2 posted on 12/01/2015 11:56:36 AM PST by Fhios (Every time they say global warming, I hear population control.)
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To: Fhios

Pat has always been doing solid work and critical thinking. By and large, he has been right whether it is immigration or power politics.


3 posted on 12/01/2015 12:09:33 PM PST by kabar
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To: Fhios

I still like Pat! I voted for him and was proud to be in his brigades! Not everything he said was right—just most of it. I never bought into Pat as anti-Israel (look at Obama to see real anti-Israel ).


4 posted on 12/01/2015 12:11:43 PM PST by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll Onward! Ride to the sound of the guns!)
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To: Kaslin

Just got this message from a friend of mine:

“John, My half sister called me later that day or the next day from New Jersey. She said a trusted friend of hers who lived in or near Paterson NJ was calling everyone he knew to report he was actually witnessing first hand the Muslim-Arabs celebrating in the streets! He said they were out and watching the Towers destruction and cheering. This was later reported by a female newscaster on National news. It was then almost completely covered up and hidden from the news. At this time, we need to identify the real enemy and wrap it up....!”


5 posted on 12/01/2015 12:14:32 PM PST by GrandJediMasterYoda (B. Hussein Obama: 20 acts of Treason and counting.)
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To: kabar
"Pat has always been doing solid work and critical thinking."

You got that right.

6 posted on 12/01/2015 12:20:57 PM PST by GonzoII ("If the new crime be, to believe in God, let us all be criminals" -Sheen)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda

The reason that the MSM say that it didn’t happen is because they didn’t report it and so there is no record in their archives. Its a Winston Smith special. This will have minimal effect on your chocolate ration however.


7 posted on 12/01/2015 12:36:56 PM PST by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: Kaslin

Pat makes the classic mistake of choosing. There is no choice. Erdogan and Putin are both scum and there problems with each other are not ours.


8 posted on 12/01/2015 12:37:34 PM PST by jwalsh07 (.)
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To: Forward the Light Brigade

I never considered Pat anti-Semitic. I viewed most of his opinions on US - Israel relations as just loyal opposition and the recognition that Israel is not the only diplomatic relationship the U.S needs to maintain.


9 posted on 12/01/2015 1:04:38 PM PST by Fhios (Every time they say global warming, I hear population control.)
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