{"id":69226,"date":"2019-01-14T07:45:19","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T14:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=69226"},"modified":"2019-01-14T08:51:51","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T15:51:51","slug":"a-tear-for-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/01\/a-tear-for-turkey.html","title":{"rendered":"A Tear for Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Constantinople,<\/a>
A view of the oldest part of Istanbul (Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jay Nordlinger has an appalling but hugely important piece (for those who care about Turkey, and for those who care about human rights) in National Review<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhisked Away:\u00a0The Turkish government and its program of kidnappings\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some here may have noticed that I\u2019m not a fan of Mr. Donald J. Trump, though there are a number of things that the Trump administration has done of which I strongly approve. \u00a0(Should Ruth Bader Ginsburg exit the Supreme Court within the next twelve to eighteen months, there will likely be another.) \u00a0But, although I understand that Turkey is an important NATO ally and a significant regional military and economic power that we should not needlessly or lightly alienate, Mr. Trump and certain others in his administration have been far too accommodating to the wishes of the ever more brazen Turkish autocrat\u00a0Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan. \u00a0(The article to which I link above provides some illustrations of that; moreover, Mr. Trump\u2019s recent announcement of a sudden, precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria apparently came after a phone conversation with Mr.\u00a0Erdo\u011fan and at the Turkish leader\u2019s urging.) \u00a0And Mr. Trump\u2019s apparent attitude toward Mr.\u00a0Erdo\u011fan is consistent with his general fondness for strongmen, which has been noted many times.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cErdogan says he will meet with Putin over US withdrawal from Syria\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump\u2019s Syria withdrawal strengthens Erdogan, Putin and Assad while abandoning US allies: The only thing that can deter strongmen like Assad, Putin, Erdogan and Iran\u2019s mullahs is a robust US presence; Syria\u2019s Kurds will be among the first to bear the brunt as Erdogan moves against them<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUS Syria pullout draws Kurdish condemnation and Putin\u2019s praise: \u2018Donald is right,\u2019 says Russian president, as US-backed Kurdish-led force warns fight against Islamic State not over\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, more generally:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump\u2019s \u2018Great Chemistry\u2019 With Murderous Strongmen: The United States diminished itself by electing a man who so often winds up needlessly praising dictators.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c6 Strongmen Trump Has Praised \u2014 And The Conflicts It Presents\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump prefers strongmen. But democracy is not weakness:\u00a0The US president praises Xi and Kim and disparages western politicians. But I\u2019d far rather live in a nation where leaders are held to account\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump\u2019s fondness for dictators and strongmen is more than just unsettling\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump befriended these strongmen in 2017\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

(I could go on providing such links indefinitely, but those are enough to make my point.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ardent supporters of Mr. Trump like to point out \u2014 to me and to others \u2014 that we \u201cdidn\u2019t elect a choir boy.\u201d \u00a0In so doing, they ask us to overlook his personal character flaws (i.e., to ignore his manifest inadequacies as a symbolic head of state, one of the two principal roles of the American presidency) and to focus on his specific performance in terms of policy and execution (i.e., to concentrate on what he does as a practical head of government, the other role of the American presidency).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been asked repeatedly for examples of actual policies and appointments and government actions that I cannot endorse.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Well, for one thing among many, I don\u2019t like what I see in the Trump administration as regards Turkey \u2014 and Syria, and the Kurds.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Issues in the Middle East may seem distant and abstract to most Americans. \u00a0They don\u2019t to me<\/em>. \u00a0I travel there often. \u00a0I know and like people in the area. \u00a0And I love Turkey. \u00a0It deserves better. \u00a0I once thought of it as a beacon of hope for the region. \u00a0No longer. \u00a0And the United States of America ought not in any way be complicit in\u00a0Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan\u2019s ambitions for regional and Islamic leadership and in his destruction of Turkish freedom and democracy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Jay Nordlinger has an appalling but hugely important piece (for those who care about Turkey, and for those who care about human rights) in National Review: \u00a0 \u201cWhisked Away:\u00a0The Turkish government and its program of kidnappings\u201d \u00a0 Some here may have noticed that I\u2019m not a fan of Mr. Donald J. Trump, though […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA Tear for Turkey<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Jay Nordlinger has an appalling but hugely important piece (for those who care about Turkey, and for those who care about human rights) in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/01\/a-tear-for-turkey.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Tear for Turkey\" \/>\n<meta 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