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The Spectacle Blog
Prefacing potential of regional conflagration, the Turkish parliament approved military response against Syria, after a Syrian mortar killed several civilians at a refugee camp in south-central Turkey. Two days of return fire marked a dramatic escalation in the simmering border crisis playing out atop an Ottoman fault-line.
The international response was predictable. At the Security Council, Russia stamped on strongly worded condemnations, while bickering diplomats fumbled with semantics. Things are considerably stickier at NATO headquarters, where higher-ups are weighing the fact that one of its members just suffered a flagrant attack. Turkey has exercised an “Article 4” motion, seeking consultation with member nations.
Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister, representing the “major non-NATO ally” at an event in France, hastily reminded treaty partners that an attack on one NATO member is an attack on them all. The latter statement is confounded by the fact Israel is still technically at war with Syria (harkening back to the ’67 conflict) and undoubtedly antsy about complete meltdown in the marchlands.
If this most recent quandry hasn’t completely imploded by the foreign policy debate on October 22nd, I’d be interested to hear the candidates expound on America’s future in NATO – a collective defense alliance that threatens to makes America less safe.
Allow me to quote the eminent Doug Bandow on the matter:
“…Expanding NATO over the last two decades has turned what once was a military alliance into an international social club. Other than Poland, the post-1989 NATO entrants have been military midgets, security black holes requiring the U.S. to pay to rearm and retrain militaries which remain too small to do anything useful in a real war.”
Too small to do anything at all in a real war…except drag us into it.
View all comments (13) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Reid Smith
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/10/04/natos-nightmare-in-turkey
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Martin| 10.4.12 @ 3:56PM
Yes, but Israel and Turkey were both NATO members before 1989. If Putin invades Poland, any reasonable U.S. administration would respond; the problem is not post-1989 members but Middle Eastern ones.
Reid Smith| 10.4.12 @ 4:03PM
Israel isn't a member. Turkey joined in '52, but that was a Cold War play. Their current troubles are indicative of the problem with this security alliance.
Occam's Tool| 10.4.12 @ 3:56PM
Watching scumbag hit scumbag is always fun.
C. Vernon Crisler | 10.4.12 @ 4:15PM
A system of lock-step automatic responses if an ally is attacked is one of the main factors leading to WW1. I hope we use caution in what we do if a (supposed) ally is attacked.
mike 3/505| 10.4.12 @ 5:05PM
This could actually be an opportunity for us to fix the relationship with Turkey. They ARE a NATO member. Perhaps if we treated them as such, we could shortout the emerging islamist movement there. Tie our help to their return to the philosophy of Mustafa Gemal Attaturk.
Conservative Bob| 10.4.12 @ 5:15PM
I seem to recall that the 4th ID was to bring troops and supplies through Turkey. Just hours before they were to head out Turkey backed out on us.
This caused all kinds of problems and ultimately increased the number of our people killed and wounded.
Turkey's value as an ally should be measured in that light.
mike 3/505| 10.4.12 @ 8:00PM
They were an awesome help to us during the Cold War. WE screwed up by not better helping them in their effort to become part of the EU/EEU. We treated them as red headed step children and it's not surprising that their support for the West has cooled.
Sean| 10.4.12 @ 9:39PM
Turkey has a history of being a good ally. The problem with this Syria deal is the rebels have been egged on by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the US. They are the same element of AQ who we just helped in Libya. In Libya these people we armed just killed an American ambassador. In Syria the same thing will also probably happen. Turkey has been giving safe haven to these rebels. This mortar could have come from rebels to draw Turkey in. It realy is a mess we should stay out of.
Scott| 10.5.12 @ 1:58AM
Turkey was in the alliance long before 1989 and isn't a military midget, so I'm not sure what Bandow's point was.
doramin| 10.5.12 @ 12:57PM
Do tell. Turkey has a powerful military. I well recall in 2000 Turkey flung down the gauntlet before Hafez (Daddy) Assad over Assad's sponsorship of the Kurdish PKK. Assad was forced to make humiliating concessions or else.
Turkey is more than capable of stomping Bashar and seizing as much Syrian real estate as it pleases without anyone's help.
RJ| 10.5.12 @ 2:37AM
NATO accomplished its mission with the fall of the Soviet Union. I wonder what it does for us now. Times have changed and I do worry that it could get us into military conflicts that weren't considered at the time of NATO's founding.
Sean| 10.5.12 @ 6:57AM
You mean like Kosvo and Bosnia.
Occam's Tool| 10.5.12 @ 11:06AM
Yup, love being dragged into conflicts to protect Muslims, 'cause it's so obvious that they love and respect us.
The actual way we should treat calls for help from Islamic nations:
http://www.cagepotato.com/knoc.....-mastered/