And these are Tartar missiles(RIM-24A) launching, not Tatar missiles.
Posted on 03/18/2014 2:45:10 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Turkey is going more Islamic and Russia is more Christian so I think there’s going to be some sort of “disagreement” between the two. Biblical prophesy or something?????
Given that Russia and Ukraine are on the verge of armed conflict then the Turks would have every right in the world to close the strait to BOTH Russian and Ukrainian shipping for the duration of any conflict.
In advance of this potential conflict it is prudent of the Turks to advise the Russians of Turkey’s treaty obligations should Russia wage open war against Ukraine.
And Russia will not engage Turkey over this because to do so will mean Turkey will request that NATO honor Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty.
So much for the useful idiot argument that this has nothing to do with the US. Turkey = NATO. NATO = Article V. Boom.
It’s far better to now deal firmly with Putin diplomatically than wait until this escalates into an Article V military situation.
Maybe we should all brush up on our History. Under the Eagle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqwdBLgPl3w
I don’t know. There was a brief resistance to Islamic ascendance in Turkey a few years ago, a neo-paganism harking back to pre-Islamic, Central Asian identity and belief. So many people are discontented with the status quo. Dangerous times.
“... then they have the power to close the Strait against them.”
Poor choice of words “the power to close”. But do they have “the power to keep them closed” after the first missiles and bombs destroy all their military facilities?
Thing is that part of Turkey at Istanbul is European and on the other side of the the Bosporus it’s Eastern.
i love taters
The diplomacy of Obama/Kerry is not the diplomacy that Frederick the Great recommended, remember.
Turkey and taters i’m getting hungry (no ukraine)
If Ukraine dares, that is its choice. There are no academic arguments in war, just winners and losers, death, destruction and crippling wounds. Choose your friends, enemies and battles carefully.
So who do you see as the aggressor here?
In advance of this potential conflict it is prudent of the Turks to advise the Russians of Turkey’s treaty obligations should Russia wage open war against Ukraine.
And Russia will not engage Turkey over this because to do so will mean Turkey will request that NATO honor Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty.
If Turkey closes the Bosporus to Russia but allows NATO shipping to reinforce or support Ukraine, Russia will be justified to do whatever is necessary to close the straits to all of its enemies. As for Article V obligations, do you really think any NATO member nation wants to go to war against Russia? NATO was formed to defend Western Europe against a massive Soviet invasion that never came, not to project offensive warfare in distant lands. For practical reasons (our allies' current military weaknesses) as well as political ones, America would have to carry that fight alone.
Maybe but, for other reasons. Turkish interest is not in Supporting NATO interests but for a small number of ethnic brothers. If this report is accurate, there is a bigger potential of a soft alliance being formed here between them and Russia. The Tartars being discussed here are not a threat to Putin. He may jump at the chance to present to the world what a humanitarian good guy he is, and insure the Tartars are protected, at least as well as they were under the Ukrainian government. And, by so doing flaunt that a NATO member is more interested in ethnic ties than European ties... The root issue of what pushed this whole historical conflict into its present manifestation. Perfect opportunity for Putin to show that NATO, like Obama, is a paper tiger.... At least as it pertains to foreign relations. If so, this will just serve to empower Putin to keep going. He and China have got to see that they have the West on the ropes. I do not have an answer for us and the West. We are disconnected and seem to be only able to ask Russia what the heck they think they are doing. Kerry’s scolding of them like they were a bully on the schoolyard, as if you could shame them into playing fair, is a bell weather indication of how far we have fallen. Palin was right, decisions have consequences and this paper tiger foreign relations has lead us to an untenable decision. What do you do when others do not play fair and you have been a large part of setting up the conditions that allow them to not have to worry about ‘our rules’? Putin is rewriting the rules and as others on Freerepublic have noted, it can have a certain appeal even to many in the West, US upcommance. I am not certain that is what Obama has been angling at but it certainly matches his domestic actions and viewpoint. I suspect he thought he could dazzle Putin and the world like he has done with the liberal contingent of the West all of his pampered adult life and be allowed to orchestrate the a world restructuring for his posterity. He is just a useful fool to Russia, China...
Tatar are a Turkic people, not a language, but they do speak Bashkir.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatars
That's actually complicated. The original aggressor was the Western-backed Maidan revolution which overthrew Ukraine's elected government. One of the consequences of that coup was that Russia's ally was replaced with a hostile government in Kiev, prompting Russia to occupy Crimea in order to secure the strategic Russian naval base at Sevastopol. The Russian occupation was an offensive action, but a defensive move.
I am not arguing who is right or wrong in this conflict, just weighing the strategic interests of the parties involved. To Russia, securing Crimea (and possibly even Ukraine, if Poland becomes a NATO member) is a vital necessity and worth going to war over. Neither Crimea nor Ukraine is vital to the defense of America or Western Europe, and is therefore not worth going to war over.
The idea of appeasing tyrants never works out well. In this case the feeble reaction to the invasion of Ukraine has the Russians now angling to attack a NATO member: Estonia.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/19/us-russia-estonia-idUSBREA2I1J620140319
NATO might not want to go to war with Russia but for damn sure Russia doesn’t care about going to war with NATO.
Anschluss or Sudetenland, your choice of which this could be.
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