There can be but little doubt that Turkey will be in upheaval for some time, no matter how things shake out in Ankara. There is even less doubt that ISIS and al-Qaeda are putting out an all-points bulletin to jihadis to converge on Turkey to exploit the situation there. This is but the first detonation, following on Nice. More alas is likely to come.
The last 48 hours have blown the hinges off NATO’s southern door. The European Union was relying on Turkey to stand between it and the chaos of Syria. Now the wall is threatening to collapse on Frau Merkel. The chaos she sought to keep at bay may have moved one country closer to the heart of Europa, a Europa which the French security failure suggests is defenseless against the fire which it, itself, has started within its borders.
Mohammed started the fire 1400 years ago. The western world has allowed it to be rekindled and it is going to burn us all unless we make a concerted effort to put it out. The dousing of the fire will not be cheap and it will be painful. We will have to put aside our western moral values and get down in the dirt with those who wish us dead.
And Erdogan’s biggest ally Muslim Brotherhodd resides in the White House. With Crooked Hillary just waiting to continue with that cushy relationship. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it #NeverTrumpers.
“We will have to put aside our Western moral values and get down in the dirt with those who wish us dead” Absolutely right and the only solution. Now the challenge, how do we get to that solution when there’s such a solid wall of blocked off politicians who refuse to even consider such action?
If I were voting in the US election I would vote for the most likely person to take such action. It isn’t Hillary Clinton, she’s more of the same. It appears they’ve not evolved much since 9/11. Obama’s terms in Office have been all talk, great after the fact oration and no solutions.
“We will have to put aside our western moral values and get down in the dirt with those who wish us dead. … ”
We will have to figure which of our western moral values are really ours, which are really moral, and which are values. There has been much pollution and corruption of the western canon by recent generations and if we don’t figure out what we have that is worth fighting for, we won’t fight.
“I think NATO is obsolete”–Donald Trump, March 2016.
Is there any indication the present sitting PM of Canada has this figured out or is he the perfect example of what happens when the socialist creep comes full circle?
Liz: The answers to your questions are so apparent that those questions must be rhetorical. Our Cartoon PM could not find his ass with both hands.
PM Selfie zooming around in his tiny bubble has no relevance to events in the real world. If a future US administration decides to get tough with Canada and its lack of concern about its own borders and security, it will be shown quickly enough how little influence Canada wields.
That reminds me, speaking of PM Selfie…did you notice how theatrical he looked at the stampede with the ten gallon hat, belt buckle, jeans and the long trench coat? He looked like he was starring in a movie….a sequel to Brokeback Mountain perhaps…he’s too pretty for real life.
The current occupant of the White House, realistic had nothing to do with it.
He just noticed the mention in his morning paper.
Just watched a 60 minute interview by MSNBC with Assad of Syria. Hardly came across as a nutbar dictator. His view of the struggle against those who want to break up Syria is pretty basic. Sunni insurgents paid by Saudi Arabia are the core of ISIS. Their radical Islamic threat is endorsed by Saudi Arabia.
I find it ironic that each radical Islamic group that comes along is labeled by the MSM as the ultimate threat. As Assad said who pays for these fighters and what is their ultimate aim? To me Saudi Arabia has always been the core threat. They have seeded radical Islam around the world through billions $ spent on religious centers that teach intolerance and violence against non believers.
I do not view the Iranians as the enemy in the ME or the world. It is the Saudis and has always been so.
A crisis that cannot be solved in a thousand days can be solved in a single night.
Our elites tell us to just live (and die) to get along with terror. They live behind walls, guarded by guns, with jobs accruing pensions. The people they are telling to prepare to die have no walls, no guns, and no jobs.
More blood will flow until the one night solution faction takes control.
I have zero confidence in our present leaders, Obama, Trudeau Jr, Ralph Goodale, to ask the right question, let alone engage the enemy.!5 years on from 9/11 they still are clinging to the mantra “nothing to do with Islam” or asking “Why do they hate us”. In Sept 2001, US was not engaged in any overt war with a Muslim country, instead they had recently intervened in Kosovo on the side of the Muslim minority, against Serbian aggression.
Still Islamic terrorists flew airplanes into a major city and slaughtered close to 3000 civilians. It is pointless to reason with such opponents; there are no demands, no motive except to kill as many western civilians as possible. People so deluded as to fly airplanes into a building are the sort who would drive a truck through a horde of innocent by bystanders.
Being nice, trying to accommodate such believers, talking to them is fruitless, if they are interested only in killing you.
There is one conclusion to come to in the present state of Western politics. Stupidity reigns supreme and there’s no hope apparent. Democracies are as good as the people in them. In Canada we are not in good hands and we know where the blame lies…somewhere between a biased media and low information voters who accept what they hear and read, judge by appearance, the judging a book by it’s cover syndrome.
Speaking of the most senior of the Liberal cabal, Ralph Goodale, can anyone recall what he has done beyond criticizing the Opposition with his constant head nodding and brown nosing his leaders no matter how badly they perform? Check out the other more senior members of the governing party…Hedy Fry, Carolyn Bennett, John McCallum…the best they have to offer beyond a pack of newbies. Should we worry yet? Should we get ourselves a prescription for pot and sing “don’t worry, be happy”?
“Now the wall is threatening to collapse on Frau Merkel. The chaos she sought to keep at bay …”
Sought to keep at bay? Really?
I must have missed that part. Can someone please point out for me just one thing she has done since her election that could be construed, no matter how tenuously, as evidence that she tried to keep the European shitstorm “at bay”.
Quite the opposite from my perspective. It seems to me that Frau Merkel dowsed the flames with gasoline instead of pails of water at every opportunity.
“… judging a book by it’s cover syndrome”
Or, in its more modern context, “Judging a tit by his tweets.”
All one needs to know of Ralph Goodale’s plan to combat international jihad may be seen in this piece from TorStar:
“Public Safety Canada, the RCMP and some municipal police forces actively work with communities to try to prevent young people from becoming radicalized and embracing violence.
The Liberals have promised to appoint a co-ordinator of community outreach and counter-radicalization to serve as a needed focal point for multi-agency efforts. An announcement is expected soon.”
There you have it; Canadians can rest peacefully and get on with their lives.
Yeah, right…rest easy is what THEY’RE doing, waiting and hoping no catastrophic event(s) happen while they do what they do best…shoot from the lip and do squat. Let us hope we don’t ever have proof of this, hope is all we have with this lot…there is no faith.
One more thing with our Liberal government…how about the dead silence on all the Syrian “refugees” they brought in and started begging for help from organizations because they were not prepared? How is that going? Who is watching the progress? How many are already “lost”?
Maybe wee Justin believes the problem’s solved, hence his silence.
Erdogan is an Islamist tyrant.
Merkel may want Turkey to be stable but Obama doesn’t care.
This will not end well.
Why should he care? He’ll be out of office in a few months time, so he’s simply running out the clock.
But he has never cared.
All of this was by design.
He played Mr. Tough Guy with terrorists until 2012. Once he got what he really wanted, namely a second term and the associated bragging rights, he retired on the job.
He reminds me of certain professors I knew who went to seed after they got tenure.
Tough guy nothing.
Obama wanted this from the get-go.
Would anyone put it past Erdogan to have staged the Coup to give him an excuse to purge the military and shore up his rule. The attempt seemed to have collapsed before it got going. Surely commanders in charge of the Coup knew that once initiated there’s no going back or giving up as you’re as good as dead if you fail. It might also explain how quickly and “spontaneously” the masses took to the streets to show support for Erdogan. Just wondering….