Posted on 06/18/2010 2:25:43 PM PDT by Ooh-Ah
I've written a lot about the motives for Turkey's regime in turning toward the Iranian bloc and away from the West, as well as picking a bitter quarrel with Israel (here and here). But there's a detail that's extraordinarily important that must be added.
This is something that one hears from many Turks, both regime supporters and oppositionists, but hasn't surfaced in the Western media. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is very angry at President Barack Obama and feels that the U.S. president has personally insulted him. And accepting this story, many pro-regime Turks think that Obama has thus insulted Turkey itself.
[Why, might you ask, do many opposition Turks feel angry at the United States? A big step in that was the quarrel in 2003 over whether U.S. troops could go through Turkey to get into Iraq. So, yes, this is one case where the Bush Administration does deserve a lot of the blame. But one more recently constantly hears Turks opposed to the Islamist regime who are mad because they feel that Obama is supporting the Islamization of their country by being so soft on the current regime.]
For months and up to the very last minute, Obama privately encouraged Erdogan to negotiate with Iran for some kind of deal. This was a terribly stupid thing to do since Obama should have understood that Erdogan is now very close to Tehran. But the Turkish prime minister was eager to play an important international role and to help his friends in Tehran, as well as scoring points with the United States.
In another bad mistake, Obama thought that coddling the Turkish regime would lead to gaining its vote in the UN Security Council on sanctions against Iran. The result was the exact opposite.
(Incidentally, this is a big misunderstanding regarding the Turkish regime. A number of people claim that it really is trying to be friends with everyone. This isn't true. It is helping Iran, Syria, Hamas, and Hizballah against the West. But as long as the West imposes no cost for this policy, the regime can present itself as everyone's friend.)
Well, last month, Erdogan "succeeded." He made a terrible deal with Iran on the very verge of the UN Security Council vote on sanctions. Suddenly, the Obama Administration that this was a disaster, offering an escape route for Tehran to postpone or even block sanctions altogether. It reacted strongly against the Turkish-Brazilian bargain.
Erdogan was, understandably, outraged at the perceived American betrayal. He is a very tumultuous and emotional man and when he feels his honor is impugned, he blows up. And so he did.
I am NOT suggesting here that the Obama Administration shouldn't have rejected the Turkish-Brazilian proposal. Saying that the proposal was no good was a correct decision. The mistake was blundering into a corner by essentially encouraging untrustworthy and even hostile intermediaries to talk on America's behalf.
Nor am I suggesting that this is the sole reason for the Turkish regime's current policy.
What I am saying is that this has been one of many Obama Administration errors which is leading to a decline in American credibility and power, undermining U.S. alliances and helping its enemies, or making friends decide they're better off to get in good with America's enemies.
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (PalgraveMacmillan). His new edited books include Lebanon: Liberation, Conflict and Crisis; Guide to Islamist Movements; Conflict and Insurgency in the Middle East; The West and the Middle East (four volumes); and The Muslim Brotherhood. To read and subscribe to MERIA, GLORIA articles, or to order books. To see or subscribe to his blog, Rubin Reports.
Obama is a catastrophe for this country.
Bump.
We need to fund to have some talks with the Generals over there. Let them know they can take care of the Islamists, or the CIA will start funding the Kurdish separatists.
He's consistent though - consistently bad.
Interesting articles/analysis by Rubin.
How European Tolerance Islamized Turkey...
Thanks to maggiesnotebook for linking the article on her blog.
The unprincipled clowns who run most mid-east countries will support the leader who can crack heads. They will always complain, so you can ignore that.
That’s true. I wish his home planet would come and get him. He needs to go home!
“Why, might you ask, do many opposition Turks feel angry at the United States? A big step in that was the quarrel in 2003 over whether U.S. troops could go through Turkey to get into Iraq. So, yes, this is one case where the Bush Administration does deserve a lot of the blame.”
WHAT is this person talking about? We asked the Turks permission to allow a mech division to pass through and they said no. For that THEY are supposedly mad at US? The “blame Bush” ideology is all-pervasive.
Me too!
Isn’t it great that the world loves us again after 8 years of that cowboy George Bush?
WTF is Erdogan angry about? 0bama abets and approves of everything Turkey is trying to do to antagonize Israel.
The essence of the problem stems from Obama’s personal political ideology (essentially anti-U.S.-strength in foreign affairs) and the naivete about the real world that his ideological approach produces.
Like most Marxists he views most historic U.S. foreign policy positions as part of “capitalist hegemony schemes” and totally and singularly seeking “supremacy of purely ‘U.S. interests’” and everyone else, every other nation in the world are true internationalists and ONLY interested in “the world’s common welfare”.Ideological, naive, stupid and, for the U.S., dangerous he is.
Currently, they can’t be trusted as an ally—that much is for sure, so who gives a f*ck why these people may or may not be upset with us. If you can’t do the slightest favor when we are supposedly allies, then you might as well be considered an enemy and be done with it.
Iran, since Rubin doesn't know, is Persian Shi'ia.
Clearly Rubin doesn't know that Arabs hate Persians...and that Arabs and Persians have been at war with each other since prior to the formation of Islam.
Speaking of which, Shi'ia and Sunni Muslims have been at war with each other since the 2nd generation of Muslims were born centuries ago.
But wait, there's more!
Rubin, the author of the tripe that passes for an editorial in this thread, doesn't realize that under Erdoğan's Prime Ministry, that Iraq and Turkey signed 48 trade agreements on behalf of the Iraqi-Turkish Strategic Council in Baghdad (i.e. with the Iraqi government) since the U.S. invasion in 2003.
Agreements signed included sectors of security, energy, oil, electricity, water, health, trade, environment, transport, housing, construction, agriculture, education, higher education, and defense.
Barry Soetoro is a Radical MUSLIM TERRORIST who has conned his way into the Most Important Office of Our UNITED STATES with the express agenda of Destroying HER! Soetoro is a Trillion Times more Dangerous to AMERICA with sll of his Henchmen, Thugs and Handlers than Osama Bin Ladin could ever be in a Thousand Years! MAY GOD SAVE AMERICA!! and Destroy Allah....
Obama the stupid is learning what a snake bite is.
I don’t think we need to threaten them with anything, just let them know that we will support them fully if they Take Care of Business as their Constitution bids them do. Unfortunately I am not so sure that they would feel safe in believing anything we tell them.
As I recall, there was no “quarrel.”
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