Erdogan burning the Reichstag

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Oct 10, 2015 at 16:34

Hi, Tovey. You said, "...as the Russians make their own points (at the tips of their missiles) plain. Does this make the end game plan plain enough?" Plain as mud; but never mind. So far today, the only article I've followed to any degree is the deadly explosion in Ankara, Turkey. It's the worst terrorist attack in Turkish history; and since it was against pro-Kurdish demonstrators, we can pretty safely assume that Turkish President Erdogan and his AK party are behind it. For the second time in a month, now, Erdogan is blaming such an attack against the Kurds on the Islamic State, which Erdogan has, in fact, been the main (unacknowledged) supporter of for years. No surprize there -- elections are due in a few weeks, and he has been pushing for a strong Predisency, to combat "terrorism". Erdogan might as well try to blame the Russians, or the Jews, his perennial scapegoats. The man is a total nut case a la Hitler; and this latest atrocity of his might be his "burning of the Reichstag". Concerning what "point" the Russians are trying to make, the latest news of significance about them is their attacking Syria a few days ago with cruise missiles launched from the Caspian Sea. Russia lacks a true "Blue Water" navy so, like China, it has to confine its aggressive moves to neighboring countries. Because they have no land border with Syria, and the Turks stand in their way of overflights, their closest approach is through (or over, as in this case) allies Iran and Iraq. Even there, Iran does not border Russia directly; but it shares the Caspian Sea with Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. That is why this avenue was chosen. As Avis is among car rental agencies, so is Russia among the tribes of nations:

They're #2, to they try harder. Comparing the nations to lions or elephants, the alpha male is the United States, which has a powerful "harem" including Britain, France, Japan, Korea, Germany, Canada, Australia and nearly all the other powers of the world. China's harem consists of little more than North Korea, which is a bride who seldom listens to her husband. Russia's harem consists of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tadjikistan, Armenia, unrecognized annexations in Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Ukraine and Moldova, and now Syria, Iraq and Iran. In terms of real power, that doesn't amount to much; but the fact that Russia has been re-arming as fast as possible, doing an "Anschluss" in the Ukraine and generally pushing its weight around alongside Iran (like Hitler did in Spain, alongside Mussolini) makes comparisons with 1938 appropriate. I personally think a more proper comparison would be 1979, with the beginning of the USSR's disastrous intervention in Afghanistan. There are some differences, of course: Putin today is apparently weaker than Brezhnev was in 1979; but then, so is the West, whose navies are the smallest they've been since before World War I. A naive Jimmy Carter led the West then, and a naive Barack Obama leads it today.

What really came through for us in those days was Ronald Reagan, a president who had his head firmly screwed in place. If we get Trump for President next year, we may have hope of a similar victory; but with Jeb or Hillary at the helm, Putin may well pull off a Hitler instead of a Brezhnev. We'll see how it turns out. As things stand, the betting money is on Hillary and her Globalist Mogul supporters, who probably stand to profit from a revanchist Russia. The same ghouls are supporting Jeb Bush, just in case; and they all fear Trump and will do all they can to stop him. The $$$ people are even backing Rubio as a second-string fall-back. Meanwhile, Turkey remains my pick as the successor to ancient Gog; and today's "burning of the Reichstag" may turn out to be a significant event. No rapture in the weather forecast. Shalom shalom :-)

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".