In the NY Post today national security and military affairs expert Ralph Peters explains what President Obama was really doing Turkey,
Those in the MSM who’ve gushed over Obama’s speech in Ankara and his remarks in Istanbul - - that’s almost all the MSM reporting on the trip - - should pay attention to what Peter’s says.
Peters IMO correctly sees that Obama projected an image of a weak, apologetic America at the same time he hurt those in Turkey trying to halt and reverse its slide to Islamist state status.
As Peters says - - -
…[At every European stop], Obama draped Lady Liberty in sackcloth and ashes, drawing plentiful applause but no serious economic or security cooperation in return.
Then, in Turkey, he surrendered our national pride, undercut our interests and interfered in matters that aren't his business.
On the latter point: Suppose the European Union president went to Cuba and insisted that the world's sunniest concentration camp should be welcomed into NAFTA?
That's the equivalent of what our president did in Ankara on Monday when he declared that he supports Turkey's bid for EU membership.
The Europeans don't want Turkey in their club. Because Turkey isn't a European state, nor is its culture European. And it isn't our business to press Europe to embrace a huge, truculent Muslim country suffering a creeping Islamist coup.
The Europeans were appalled by Turkey's neo-Taliban tantrum on-stage at last week's NATO summit. The Turks fought to derail the appointment of a great Dane, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, as the new NATO secretary general.
Why? Because he didn't stone to death the Danish cartoonist who caricatured Mohammed. [ Peters exaggerates here but he points in the right direction. – JinC]
Which brings us to the even bigger problem: Obama has no idea what's going on in Turkey. By going to Ankara on his knees, he gave his seal of approval to a pungently anti-American Islamist government bent on overturning Mustapha Kemal's legacy of the separation of mosque and state. [I know a number of Western-oriented Turks. All of them are deeply concerned by their current government’s increasing slide toward an Islamist state.]
Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party, the AKP, means headscarves, Korans, censorship and stacked elections. The country's alarmed middle class opposes the effort to turn the country into an Islamic state. Obama's gushing praise for the AKP's bosses left them aghast.
Obama's embrace of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (now orchestrating show trials of his opponents) was one step short of going to Tehran and smooching President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. …
Peter’s entire column’s here. I strong encourage you to read the whole thing.
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Obama In Turkey: A Lose-Lose
Posted by JWM at 4:46 PM
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2 comments:
I,too, have Turkish friends and they are all concerned about the slide toward Islamofascism that is seen in Turkey today. Kemal Ataturk dedicated his life to bringing Turkey out of the twelfth century and now we see the Turks going right back to the dark ages.
When Obama stands before them as a mendicant/supplicant what are they to conclude? That they are correct and the former world leader is powerless to gainsay them. Obama is giving our enemies quite a display of faint-heartedness and our (few) friends a case of the jitters. He's already jettisoned the Poles and the Czechs, who's next?
The GOP could be running interference as the loyal opposition were it not for the fact that the party of the pachyderm has been in bed with the donkey these past eight years or so. Thus, when the Republicans try to sound like what their party once stood for, they come off more like a bunch of kids at the playground yelling taunts at the kid at bat.
These are truly the times that try men's souls and I don't see anyone in government capable of dealing with our problems.
Tarheel Hawkeye
Maybe he could show the world how tough he is by securing the release of the American captain captured by Somali pirates.
He could meet with the pirates to make a personal plea for the release, bow to them, apologize for America's sins in driving them to piracy and, then threaten them with condemnation in the strongest possible terms if harm comes to the captain.
Of course, he first must consider whether some might think he was stereotyping pirates as evil.
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