Turks are more dangerous as friends than as enemies

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), May 26, 2007 at 17:08

Dear Mariana ,

Thanks a lot for your extensive and insightful reply.

> Thank you for your extravagant praise, and sorry for the delayed response;

No need to thank and to apologize. In fact my praise fell far behind the merit of your post . Your analysis was realistic and free from illusions which so many - including some renowned scholars whose names I wouldn't like to mention here - still cherish and spread.

> As for "understatement," that's not something often ascribed hither. Your posting is stunning, and the research and collection of articles on the site you provided constitute a rich gift to us all.

Don't exaggerate ! It was nothing particularly difficult . All glory belongs to the authors of these articles.

> Thank you so much for bringing this book and the Turk Best Seller List of anti-American fantastical fiction to our attention.

The stuff is not edifying but the Americans should by all means know what their "great ally" (as one reader put it in a recent post referring to Turkey) is dreaming of during his sleepless nights. I can't imagine any such "bestseller" in Canada or Australia.

> As you have said, this is very dangerous stuff.

Paradoxically , not knowing this stuff is also dangerous. Who knows perhaps more dangerous than knowing it ?

In general , people do deserve to know the truth even though it is dangerous. This is a matter of principle .

> Like you, I'd like to see this in translation. Have you considered tackling the translation?

Unfortunately , I am not competent . My knowledge of Turkish is too defective , to put it mildly . The book calls for a good and imaginative translator .

> The Near and Middle East are aflame; fa nned by arrogance, ignorance, stupidity, greed and miscalculation, Iran, Syria and Turkey think flexing their muscles and rattling sabres will cause this American President to cower and cringe, responding to their aggressions according to the plots of self-serving fiction.

They are playing the old clumsy Moslem game against a Western enemy . Indignation of a persecuted virtue , angry complaints , then bullying , threats , double-talk of making friends with the kafir if the kafir behaves like a good boy ... The aim is clear - concessions , humiliation and submission of the hated infidel . It's very dangerous to play the good boy by the rules imposed by the Turks . The good boy will lose inevitably and will cry while the bully will only be mocking at the stupid kafir drinking coffee with his Moslem brethren .

> In America, the Lib/Dem Congressional leadership play fun and games over funding for our military, and overtly opposing [totally oblivious to events beyond their moronic "caucus rooms"] any and all foreign policy initiatives Bush puts forth. It would not surprise for Nancy Pelosi to decide to go to Turkey to tell Erdogan how she cherished the wonderful friend and ally he is. Whether "unhinged" or "out of touch" is for others to decide. Outsiders could easily miscalculate watching these farcical follies.

Unreliable and perfidious as the Turks are , they know that in the West "friends" can be bought. I would like to see the Turkish secret archives stolen and published on how and how much Turkish money has been spent and who , when and for what service has received money from the Turkish "friends" ? E.g. how else can all this shameful official American resistence to acknowledge the obvious historical fact of the Armenian genocide be explained ? The Turks must have bought votes to torpedo any resolute action in this field. One can speculate what the Turks promised to do in exchange ?

Folly is one thing but money sometimes makes folly quite reasonable. The same applies , besides , to the Saudi dollars circulating in the US.

> In the end, there are some adults in America. ...

> >"Cem Kucuk, one of the editors at "Timas Yayinlari", the book's publisher, declared in an interview : " The book is fiction but in Turkey everyone is questioning whether there will eventually be a conflict between America and Turkey...."

> I for one hope this was just hyperbolic salesmanship on his part. If he's serious, it's a total misunderstanding of the American mentality; Americans have no need of invading Turkey [Erdogan's the one trying to rebuild an Empire]; we are largely politically lazy, under-informed, and slow to anger; the media upon which we used to rely, are left-wing, post-Modernist; an overtly anti-American arm of the Dem party; however, any attack on us in that manner would affect the quickest cure to the people's temporarily insane denial of the nature of this struggle. The "PC" compliance to the whims and opinions of 'the rest of world,' would disappear, and Americans would become enraged and unified so quickly, heads would spin.

To tell you the truth , this is the singular quality of America I admire and place all my hopes on . In an hour of real need and danger Americans can mobilize incredible forces and display creativity courage and heroism one could hardly expect seeing them in their everyday life .

They know how to fight for freedom . But first they need to awaken from this left-imposed slumber. The Moslem world is more and more insolent as it sees this American inertness and perceives it as a weakness and a big chance to deliver a mortal blow to America .

> The following quoting Sedat Ergin in "Hurriyet" >"... "Now there is a strange situation. (In 2003) In spite of a promise by the AKP government, the motion was rejected in parliament and as a result war plans of Pentagon were ruined and an anger emerged in U.S. administration and public opinion." Actually, I doubt "public opinion" has even begun to be engaged on this matter. Individual Americans per se are not tracking Turkey...... yet. Very few are aware of Erdogan's flagrant abuse of American friendship. >"Then came Washington's attitude to punish Ankara, Sulaymaniah raid and U.S. soldiers' covering heads of Turkish soldiers with sacks.

Thus, one of the greatest crisis in bilateral relations emerged. "...greatest crisis in bilateral relations........"? After having captured 11 members of a Turk assassination hit-squad in Kurdistan, I find the following puzzling: >"On the other hand, it seems that Pollock [WSJ] can't see that humiliation of our 11 officers and soldiers after sacks were put on their heads by U.S. soldiers could make us forget those right things." Let me understand this. Turks are humiliated that "sacks were put on [the] heads" of this hit squad, captured in flagrante delicto??? They're lucky they didn't simply disappear from the face of the earth, never to be heard from again.

Definitely , I don't have to explain to you that such a serious scheme as sending 11 officers on a secret mission to kill a governor in a neighbouring country could never ever happen without the explicit consent and intiative of the highest military and civil authorities in Turkey . In no country do such things happen just on the initiative of a sergeant or corporal . And it was not just a routine bombing of a forgotten Kurdish village somewhere in eastern Turkey , but a highly explosive political action . The chief-of staff and the prime minister must have been involved as the consequences in case of a "success" ( imagine the Turks kill the governor and then are cought by the Americans or kill some Americans in a melee ? ) or failure must have been considered . Alternative stories and scenarios must have been developed and the whole action meticulously prepared , exercised and then carried out . To my mind behind those 11 officers stood the whole Turkish General Staff (although to be sure just few knew the details) and the government .

Yet , somehow the whole story was belittled , hushed up and the perfidious Turks played again the role of offended abused victims !

> Probably, it was decided that they had more political value alive as proof of Turkey's perfidy, and the risk involved at that point was small. Since Turkey had committed an Act of War by crossing an international border to assassinate the governor of a foreign state [which was under American protection], I think it would have been far more interesting for the 11 to have been "disappeared."

I'd rather make them confess all details about the preparation of the assination. When you catch a terrorist , it is not advisable just to eliminate him. He is an asset in your hands. He knows many things and there are definitely methods to make him "sing". Then this material can be used either openly or in secret . The Turks want to blackmail America ? Why not blackmail Turkey instead ? You don't behave properly in the future, then we make a show trial of the 11 Turkish terrorists who name publically at whose instigation in the Turkish General Staff they acted ! The Turks understand such logic. The ideas as "respect" , "good will" , "humanitarian considerations" , "moderacy", "decency" are all lost on them .

>Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was asked about anti-American sentiments. "Let's not focus on this but on making friends,..." Right! >"

In plain text - a false friend can do more damage than a true enemy. You're on alert while dealing with enemies . A false "friend" waits until you're in need and undefended to thrust a dagger into your back.

> ... Douglas Feith, the Undersecretary for Policy of the U.S. Department of Defense['s] ... insolent words implying, 'you will either terminate the anti-American atmosphere in Turkish public opinion, or we will consider you as a foe', it seems that our relations (with the US) are in a grave condition and there is need for an urgent treatment," Eksi added.

> When push comes to shove, Doug Feith's "...insolent words implying, 'you will either terminate the anti-American atmosphere in Turkish public opinion, or we will consider you as a foe...," is going to be one heck of a lot closer to American public opinion than the second diplomat's: >"This is not a phenomenon isolated to Turkey, there is a anti-American sentiment elsewhere, too, largely because of the Iraq war. At least in Turkey you can run into people who completely disagree with our policies, but they offer you a cup of coffee and are willing to sit and chat about it." I believe that in a crunch, Americans are are not interested in sitting and chatting over coffee; that's a phenomenon exemplified by State and not Defense. Anyone [in Turkey or elsewhere] who foolishly believes they could lob a Nuke onto the US, depopulate an American Capitol like DC or NY for hundreds of years, and still have a country that was more than a glassy parking lot 48 hours later, is hallucinating. They had better pray, devoutly, that someone among their leadership with a modicum of intelligence, comes to his senses. mariana

You're so right , dear Mariana ! Nebulosity , in which perfidious enemies are seen as good friends , is created by the PC diplomats . The latter not only love to drink Turkish coffee and eat kebab . They visibly enjoy Turkish promises and bribes. One of the bitter truth seems to be that the Turks are not the only false friends of America. Many an American diplomat is no much better that the Turk whom he praises.

Americans should know the explicit names of countries that want to destroy America . They should know that Turkey belongs also to this group. Relying on Turkey's "friendship" in the long run will do more damage to America's (and hence the whole free world's ) interests than declaring it an enemy according to Turkey's real anti-American acts and sentiments.

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