Rep. Anthony Weiner Unloads on our “Former Ally” Turkey

NRO ^ | 06/03/2010 | Greg Pollowitz

[OldDeckHand]

Yesterday, while on my lunch break from jury duty, I ran into an Anthony Weiner press conference in lower Manhattan. He was talking mostly about the Senate’s job bill, but took a question on Israel and the “peace” flotilla at the end. During his answer, he specifically called Turkey our “former ally.” Since I thought these were strong words for a fellow NATO member and since none of the other members of the media covering the event seemed shocked at what Weiner said, I went up to him after, iPhone in hand, to ask him to clarify. The audio is here, my question is at the end (2:43). The first half, which I started recording in progress, is Weiner debating a reporter on the best way to stop a ship at sea without boarding it. Quite amusing. After my question is the good stuff when Weiner goes after Turkey for their lack of help with Iran and their role in Gaza and the Middle East as a whole.

The main take-away is that Weiner not only slams Turkey, but takes a shot at U.S. foreign policy toward Turkey, and in the process, implicates the Obama administration:

Look, we sometimes in our U.S. foreign policy, we sometimes have what we hope will be in front of what we see clearly happening. And we are constantly on the lookout for the moderate Arab state that is going to be the one that’s going to be the linchpin of our policy there. And we sometimes don’t just look at how they’re behaving. Turkey has not act — this was clearly instigated by Turkey.

[OldDeckHand]

I wonder how long - if ever - until Chuckyou Schummer gets into the mix. It is an election year, after all.

[mojito]

Turkey is a security risk and needs to be booted from NATO forthwith.

[ozzymandus]

Weiner becomes Jewish in election years.

[JoanneSD]

Wonder why they do not have Jewish caucus, along with the rest? Asian, hispanic, black, third of the congress is Jewish..but then they would have to take a stand on Israel..

[LottieDah]

Anthony Wiener must have just remembered that he is Jewish.

[Political Junkie Too]

Turkey ceased to be an ally when they refused to allow President Bush to deploy troops from their country on Iraq's northern border during the Shock and Awe campaign.

-PJ

[hinckley buzzard]

Just so. Turkey was a NATO player during the Cold War purely for geopolitical reasons--its location. After the Cold war went into hibernation, Turkey's stock went way down. Their truculent attitude during Iraq war revealed that they are not ready for primetime. They thought they were bigshots, getting ready to crash the EU party, but discovered to their dismay that they have only been hired help the whole time.

Since Turkey has been jilted by EU, and are of little further use to the US, they have only the wretched sinkhole of islam to give them props. Hence, they now are part of the asshole lobby in the Middle East and need to be seen and treated as such.

[SJackson]

Wonder why they do not have Jewish caucus, along with the rest?

To what point. Most of America, and most of Congress supports Israel. It's not a Jewish issue.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

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[justiceseeker93]

Weiner is subtly distancing himself from the Obama Administration so to assuage his Jewish and other pro-Israel constituents. It's that time of year, five months from the congressional elections. As for Schumer, look for him to say similar stuff as well, and look for the MSM to put his mug all over the airwaves when he does so.

[ml/nj]

One of the good guys in my congregation is buddy-buddy with Turkish Muslims, and they have visited us a couple of times which has made me somewhat uncomfortable. Now I really don't want to see them anymore. It's time for the Turks to get out of Cyprus, and be made to answer for the slaughter of the Armenians.

ML/NJ