Re: ...if the Turks are our allies or cooperate with the Isra-Elis in military exercises.
That's a typically American approach... that is, a culture-blind policy when it comes to picking allies around the world to keep a peaceful balance of power. However, historically, Arab/Muslim countries were NEVER considered as trustworthy allies by colonialist Europe. Since the Middle Ages and the Crusades, the Arab/Turkish world has always been the Green Peril that had to be repelled at any cost --once, the Turkish armies were stationed only a few miles away from Vienna (Austria).
BTW, think of the wars in Yugoslavia (Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992-96 and Kosovo in 1999). NATO was the main player, right? And who's got the second largest NATO army? It's Turkey --second after the US. Now, how come Turkey didn't participate in NATO's bombing & peacekeeping missions in the Balkans?
Of course, such an unfriendly attitude by the Europeans is both racist and foolish... As I once put it, snubbing a strategic country like Turkey is as big a blunder as the Louisiana Purchase was a masterstroke for the US in 1803. For the big loser would be the US: Turkey would be a tremendous lever to rein in American unilateralism in the area... But don't worry, Islamophobic Europeans are much too stupid to understand that. So much the better for the US diplomacy.
One last remark... Did you notice that, so far, US geopolitics boils down essentially to playing the tireless firefighter along the Judeofascist/Muslim faultline? Indeed, contrary to common opinion, the US is not waging a worldwide "Kulturkrieg" against Islam but rather, is DEFUSING the crises that continuously pop up along the Judeo-Christian/Muslim border:
>The Greece-Turkey crisis has been successfully cooled mainly because the US brought the two countries under its NATO umbrella;
>In the Mideast, the US remains the undisputable "honest broker" between Jewish European settlers and the Palestinians;
>In Yugoslavia, only the US had the will to protect Muslim minorities (Bosnians and Albanians);
>In Afghanistan, the US got drawn into the battle to avoid an all-out war between Judeofascist Russia and Muslim Pakistan;
>and lastly, US Secr. of State Colin Powell had to personally negotiate a peaceful arrangement between Spain and Morocco over their border disputes....
Gus |
