Turkey is the wrong ally at the wrong time in the fight against ISIS

Sometimes when there’s bad news you just have to grit your teeth and bear it. Unfortunately, that’s what the U.S. has to do when it comes to the Syrian intervention underway from our erstwhile NATO ally Turkey.

The good news is, Turkey’s meddlesome ambitions are sharply constrained — not just by the U.S. and its allies, but by America’s adversaries, too.

Turkey, which continues to lurch further into authoritarianism and nostalgia for its bygone Ottoman Empire, recently chose to exploit the messy situation in Syria in hopes of gaining a big military advantage. The Kurds, who alone managed to break the back of the Islamic State in Syria, recently gained enough territory along the border to prompt an open-ended incursion against them by the Turks. That’s clearly bad news for the U.S. Open conflict between a non-NATO ally and a NATO ally is perilous enough. But Turkey has moved sharply away from the liberal West, growing closer to the likes of Russia, which is also now deeply enmeshed in Syria. Beyond the challenges involved in trying to “deconflict” American and Turkish forces, despite both sharing a formal military alliance, the U.S. faces the embarrassing prospect of having to array its military strategy against that of a NATO member army.

In context, this is rapidly coming to a head.

Note these 3 bits of news on Twitter, from a source I find accurate:

Abdullah Bozkurt‏ @abdbozkurt 3h3 hours ago

https://twitter.com/abdbozkurt/status/963352738640867328

Erdogan targeted US commanders Lt. Gen. Paul Funk & Maj. Gen. Jamie Jarrard today. "It is clear that he has never received an Ottoman Slap in his life", Erdogan said referring to Gen.Funk who earlier said if Turks hit US troops, they will respond aggressively & defend troops.

Abdullah Bozkurt‏ @abdbozkurt 3h3 hours ago

https://twitter.com/abdbozkurt/status/963348454620717058

Turkey president Erdogan warns Greece & Cyprus over what he calls miscalculated opportunistic moves in Aegean disputes and off-shore drilling, says his country is capable of disrupting their game plans while conduction military offensive in Afrin, Syria

Abdullah Bozkurt‏ @abdbozkurt 3h3 hours ago

https://twitter.com/abdbozkurt/status/963360919643480064

Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu raises spectre of shutting down NATO Kurecik radar base in Malatya as well as Incirlik Air Base in Adana, says Turkish people demand these and they actually see the US as an enemy.

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Erdogan? Threats, Demands and screaming oration to his base, what historic figure does that remind you of? Are we there yet children?

Turkey was a thorn in our side during the Iraq buildup. They wouldn’t let us launch troops into Iraq from there. They are no longer anything resembling what we could call an allay and are rapidly descending into what we might call an adversary.

I think we should start looking at other places where we can move our air assets. There are plenty of places that we can go to. We need to leave Incirlik now and start the process of booting them out of NATO. They were brought into NATO because of the strategic importance they represented in relationship to the USSR. That importance is greatly diminished. I doubt they get into the European Union like they want either. It was stupid when Bush years ago was advocating for them to get into it.

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