Ken Berwitz
Let me start by saying what I\’ve already said in a previous blog. Turkey\’s involvement in the so-called “coalition” President Obama has put together begins and ends at self-interest.
That is why Turkish forces are sitting back, like spectators at a ballgame, as ISIS envelops Kobani, a Syrian city on the Turkish border, with the clear intention of killing as many of its residents as possible.
From Mark Landler, Ann Barnhart and Eric Schmitt\’s article in the New York Times:
Asfighters with the Islamic State bore down Tuesday on the Syrian townof Kobani on the Turkish border, President Obama\’s plan to fightthe militant group without being drawn deeper into the Syrian civilwar was coming under acute strain.
WhileTurkish troops watched the fighting in Kobani through a chicken-wirefence, Turkey\’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that the townwas about to fall and Kurdish fighters warned of an impending bloodbath if they were not reinforced – fears the United States shares.
ButMr. Erdogan said Tuesday that Turkey would not get more deeplyinvolved in the conflict with the Islamic State unless the UnitedStates agreed to give greater support to rebels trying to unseat theSyrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
Mr.Erdogan has also resisted pleas to send his troops across the borderin the absence of a no-fly zone to ward off the Syrian Air Force.
“There\’sgrowing angst about Turkey dragging its feet to act to prevent amassacre less than a mile from its border,” a senior administrationofficial said. “After all the fulminating about Syria\’shumanitarian catastrophe, they\’re inventing reasons not to act toavoid another catastrophe.
“Thisisn\’t how a NATO ally acts while hell is unfolding a stone\’sthrow from their border,” said the official, who spoke anonymouslyto avoid publicly criticizing an ally.
Will someone please inform this unnamed “senior administration official” that, yes, it is the way a NATO ally acts – if the NATO ally is Turkey, under recep tayyip erdogan – a shari\’a law islamist the country elected, and then re-elected.
In the absence of ground forces, there is no doubt that a massacre will occur.it is going to happen. And there is no doubt that the air strikes – which is all this “fauxalition”, as I call it, is willing to join us in doing – cannot and will not prevent it. The Turks – who, let\’s remember, are, at least on paper, our NATO allies – will not lift a finger.
After all, most Kobani residents are Kurds – an ethnic group Turkey hates. So it is fine with the massacre. And, as long as ISIS does not cross the border, erdogan apparently has no problem at all with it happening.
If ISIS does cross that border, however, watch how fast erdogan demands that his NATO allies join with Turkey in doing something about it.
Is there anyone left – other than his dwindling-but-still-existent diehard supporters, who thinks Barack Obama is doing a thing to stop ISIS? Or who thinks Barack Obama has any capability at all of putting together an effective coalition and seriously challenging these murdering Islamist lunatics as they expand their territory every day while killing at will?
Is there any end to the incompetence and ineptitude of Mr. Obama and his administration?
