American "interests"

Submitted by AEB (United Arab Emirates), Aug 16, 2012 at 14:09

.... First of all, Turkey isn't sectarian as evidenced by its impartial stance on Bahrain between KSA and Iran, and its relations with Syria and Iran this past decade or so (Qatar too has been cozy with Iran and Hezbollah at times).

By this logic, if the Arab League wants to save "fellow Arabs" from Assad, Turkey "has no dogs" in this conflict either. It's a sick logic to divide victims into categories.

Second of all, as with your stance on Saddam in 1991, you still view Arab lives "strategically". As long as Muslims hate each other and hate Russia and China, and as long as only Muslim countries suffer from the fallout (and precious little Israel doesn't), ... [it is] fine accepting the slaughter in Syria.

Afghanistan and Iraq were no "interventions", as you claimed in the other article. In 1995 and 1996 Afghans begged the world to do something about the Taliban, and these cries for help continued until 2001. Even as Hekmatyar sabotaged the Peshawar Accords in 1992 the West completely abandoned their former allies. Same goes for Saddam; when he was slaughtering Iranians, he was serving "strategic" interests. When he occupied Kuwait, he violated them, and this warranted the merciless slaughter of Iraqis and bombardment of Iraqi infrastructure, and the West need not bother itself with Iraqi casualties, as you recommended. The invasion of 2003 was even bloodier than 1991, and it came at a time of relative stability. Iraq in 2003 is exactly what Qaddafi and Assad could have turned Libya and Syria into.

And lastly, how is the NTC worse than Qaddafi? They may be awful, but they're definitely not worse. Nothing will ever compare with how Zawiyya and Misrata were brutalized. Libya is recovering from civil war. Anarchy will have to be reined in eventually.

By the way, comparing Turkey to Saudi Arabia ... Islamists like all other politicians are divided and lumping them into a monolith is as simple as lumping all conservatives together; i.e. hawks with fascists. Turkey is culturally and politically part of the West, and ... [west] continues to drive Turks into the arms of the Muslim world.

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