It's Sinatra Time

To the Point News ^ | 11/8/06 | Dr. Jack Wheeler

[Verginius Rufus]

Turkey was a tactical ally during the Cold War because they were worried about Russia ("the enemy of my enemy is my friend"). Certainly they aren't to be trusted, as their double-cross in 2003 shows (at the last minute denying us the right to launch an invasion of Iraq from Turkish territory), but they have what they have by conquest and aren't likely to give any of it up willngly.

The same thing goes for some of the other countries on the map--Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, for example. They aren't just going to go along with a radical redrawing of political boundaries and we aren't in a position to force them to.

Anyway, what would it accomplish? The main problems are the political and religious mindsets of the people that make it very difficult to build a decent democratic regime from the raw materials, and changing the borders won't change the attitudes.

[elcid1970]

"you couldn't come close to carrying a tune like he [Sinatra] did"

I seemed to have touched a nerve. You're not from New Jersey, are you?

FYI, we peons were told that we must "separate the artist from the man" in Sinatra's case, as the toll of parking lot attendants, press photographers and elderly drunks punched out by The Chairman was starting to mount.

BTW, the loveliest tune I remember from the sixties was "Something Stupid", sung in duet with his daughter Nancy. I wouldn't ever dream of playing it backwards.

But "Witchcraft" in reverse is a hoot!