To Be NATO, or Not To Be NATO; That is the Question....Etc., Etc.

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Sep 8, 2011 at 14:19

Musing over the phrase, 'certainly be a blessing in disguise for the Turks,' almost brings a certain satisfaction to this reader's earlier observations of the items you have kindly provided. In point of fact, the points 1 through 4 are almost certain to be an outcome of one sort or another as Turkey's position at the crossroads of its destiny is about to be made plain for all to see. And to be specifically assured, its relationship with Islam is at the heart of it all.

You are correct that Turkey could easily dispense with its western relationships, any necessities of trade to be conducted with the oil rich Middle Eastern partners in kind. So let us review:

Point 1: agreed. Point 2: With certain differences on details and with whom a partnership might be consummated, agreed. Point 3: While identified as a potential liability resulting in dealing with the 'insurgency,' it is an ancillary situation to be handled and not central to Turkey's posture in the Middle East as it is related to the necessity of any kind of former alliance with NATO-as you said: does Turkey really need to be in NATO?

Point 4: This one is tricky, that while there may be some details in this summation that could have some bearing on the next 30 months or so, stretching it out to 'a decade or two later' is really stretching it a little thin. Given the course of things as they are now running, the last sentence in Point 4 is somewhat superfluous in this estimation and it will not take one decade, let alone two decades, to sort it all out.

The tricky part of it is that the details are not supported by the current facts; and that is the problem with hoping for the conclusion you allude to-it is not likely to turn out that way. We have already discussed why elsewhere so I'll not bore you with it again. Let it be sufficient to say that the critical aspect of it all is that very tricky part-what to do, oh, what to do about Israel that the entirety of the Arab/Muslim world cannot get out of its mentality of world domination. And by the way, the West will not get it right either; but it is suspected that would be good news for you…..if only people really knew what to do.

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