Turkey

Oh! what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!

Those lines from a sixteenth century poem came to mind when I heard that Turkey had shot down a Russian airplane while it was bombing ISIS, or whatever target they chose by claiming that it was ISIS.

It also brought to mind that the day after Turkey “graciously” let our air force use it bases in Turkey to fight ISIS, that the Turks started using its planes to bomb our “allies,” the Kurds in Syria, who were also fighting ISIS.

Is that complicated enough? It gets worse, much worse.

Watch this video and you’ll understand.

So what did our government say about the Turks killing our allies? Nothing. The permission to use Turkish facilities for our bombing missions was a simple quid pro quo.

The Turkish government told our government to look the other way, and it is. Shame on us but as we and they know, the Kurds are just pawns in the game.

I wonder why the Kurds are on our side, when we let them be slaughtered?

If a no-fly zone is finally agreed on, how are the Turks going to drop bombs on the Kurds in Syria? It’s a real problem for them, especially as some of our Special Force soldiers are probably embedded with the Syrian Kurds.

Fortunately, I think that our soldiers have been ordered to wear tennis shoes, so there won’t be any “boots on the ground” as our naive president has repeatedly said.

Perhaps our government will look the other way again. It’s going to give our president neck strain from continually looking the other way.

The same goes for Russian airplanes. Are we going to shoot down Russian jets as well? I don’t think so. Why?

The Russians can shoot back (very hard and cut off Europe’s access to Russian natural gas) so the entire Syria/Iraq mess, compliments of our two presidential pretenders, gets more complicated.

Now we have another disaster. The Turkish air force has shot down a Russian airplane and President Putin, not someone you want to cross, is on the warpath!

The Turks say that the plane was in their airspace, and the pilot was warned to go away ten times. I don’t think so.

The Russians will say that the airplane, that crashed in Syria, was never over Turkey. As the plane didn’t crash in Turkey, I tend to believe the Russians.

It’s a “he said, she said” situation. I have no doubt that our radar tracking facilities know exactly where that airplane was, but here’s the problem –

If we say that the Russian plane was not over, or leaving, Turkey when attacked, Russia could reasonably retaliate by starting to shoot down Turkish planes killing our allies when they fly into Syria. Then what do we do?

The Turks belong to NATO where Article 5 will force us (and Europe) to retaliate militarily against the Russians. Ha, ha. So much for Article 5.

President Obama defended the Turks today by saying that they had the right to defend their territory. Foolish words to use at this time.

If the Syrian government asks Russia to help protect its territory against illegal Turkish incursions into its airspace, will Russia use our president’s words to be the rationale for it downing Turkish jets even briefly in Syria?

In spite of all of our media reports using reckless words such as regime or dictatorship, the Syrian government is still the Syrian government until it falls. It hasn’t fallen and may not.

We need the Russians help, although they won’t concede al-Assad leaving office. They need their one naval port in the Mediterranean at Tartus, Syria.

Also unreported is that they are helping the Syrian army take back territory as the Russians are killing our allies, the “moderate” Syrian rebels. More pawns.

We don’t say anything about that either. I wonder what the rebels think of our government? Not a lot, and they will have long memories. They are using us, as we are using them.

On the other hand, if we say that the Russian jet never entered Turkish airspace, then the Turks will get annoyed at being abandoned by the United States so may throw us out of their airbases.

Finally, it is suggested that Turkey is supporting ISIS by buying its oil production far below market prices. As ISIS is a Sunni organization threatening the Middle East and the west, if true, Turkey is backstabbing the west by providing them with massive financial support facilitating their terrorist ambitions! That benefits Turkey and Saudi Arabia, our “best friends,” in blocking Iran’s ambitions. It’s more of looking the other way.

You may also have wondered why we hadn’t effectively bombed the ISIS oil production and distribution facilities to stop the flow of money? It’s probably for a similar reason why our soldiers were forbidden to destroy the Afghan poppy fields that funded the Taliban.

It’s going to get worse, much worse, especially as President Obama is determined not to do anything, so that the next president (Clinton) will have all of the complex problems dumped in her lap.

The ISIS problem is simple to fix. You can read the solution here. It won’t be acted on, as it will be embarrassing for our government as our president’s legacy will be tarnished. That won’t happen.

As I wrote above –

Oh! what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!