12:10AM
A bad call by Obama on Turkey
Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 12:10AM 
FT front-pager on how Obama warns the Turks to change their stance on Israel and Iran or risk being denied US weapons.
This while we sell the store to the Saudis, birthplace of most of the 9/11 terrorists, and keep the pipeline open to the Pakistanis. Talk about screwed up.
This is an immature response to a maturing foreign policy.
An anonymous administration official is quoted as saying the Turks need to show that they take our national security interests seriously.
Definitely a realism deficit--on our side.
Reader Comments (3)
I hope more people understand that the "Israel/Palestine" issue, while still important for national sovereignty issues, is more of a cover for the "cold war" between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Pro Palestinian activists irritate me the most on this because some of the more extreme ones actually think that is Israel falls, a truly independent Palestine will rise....talk about fantasy!
So with the relatively little info I have, I am thinking, Obama is actually saying to Turkey...."get out of it, we don't want you taking part in this!!" I could be wrong. However, I do know, without an independent Israel, there will be no independent Palestine.
Sure, there could be a fake Palestine, kinda like Lebanon, but still, that would be a charade...which tends to be the normal course of events sometimes.
Apparently there's not enough we can do to push away a long and valued ally, a member of NATO. I completely agree with you, Tom. We can't be slavish imitators of Israeli foreign policy. We need to promote our own.
John,
I think that Turkey wants to become more of a regional power. Turkey's policy of "no problems with neighbors" means that Israel isn't a neighbor anymore! Turkey has chosen to deal more with Iran, and in doing so, must not be so friendly with Israel. However, another test is to see how friendly Turkey is with Saudi Arabia. Israel's foreign policy is essentially, "Be like Lebanon? HELL NO!" at all costs, of course.