A few years ago the US was pushing the EU to absorb Turkey. This rubbed the people of Europe the wrong way big time. The US/UK are largely blamed for most of the problems, since the invasion of Iraq released the monstrous pressures of what used to be called the Arab Street. And the knock on refugee crisis overflowed into Jordan Syria Lebanon and Turkey. When, like in the 70s and 80s Beirut, these camps became a recruiting ground. Where the accession talks for Turkey were going along nicely pre 2000 this became impossible afterwards for one of the core ideas of the EU is the free movement of peoples inside the EU. And there was no way in hell the border was going to be opened allowing what was seen as a dangerous cohort free movement. Of course one of the red button issues was the border with Iran too.
Then enter the crisis in Syria. Where again plonkers attempted to remove a long established regime without one iota of an idea how to replace it. You'd think the issue in Iraq would've been instructive. But we have one of the greatest refugee crisis and movement of peoples since the second world war. We had people crossing into Greece and Bulgaria by the 100,000. The seas between Turkey and Greece were thick with small boats filled to the gunnels only to turn up to reception centers in a country bankrupted by idiotic monetary policy. But were welcomed by the Greeks from the first. More than could be said about the rest of Europe.
Fast forward to May this year when the EU and Turkey entered a pact where Syrian refugees would be kept in Turkey, by force. Camps would be established. Control centres opened and moneys from the EU would pay for it all.
Then last week we had a coup attempt by a segment of the army. A word of explation here is needed. Turkey can generally speaking be split into a few social segmentations. Liberals, but not as we would know liberals. And religious. The liberals are best explained juxtaposed to the religious. Then the religious can be split into hardliners and middleground. Now the coup attempt was made by a religious segment, and the presidential faction was part of this segment but spalled off some years ago. So, largely what we are seeing now is a civil war in the religious section with the president attempting to become a dictator using the coup as an excuse.
The thing is Turkey, like Syria and before it Iraq, is reacting to inputs wholly derived in chancelleries and state departments in Europe and the US. They are not in control, now. But God knows what we'll get in the future if they don't have sane and non partisan help soon. And truthfully I do not see the new PM in the UK or either candidate for POTUS nor any European with either the brains or the stomach to cleave through the sectional bullshit for the truth is anyone that tries to be Statesmanlike is going to have a short tenure indeed. I'd even be happy with benign self-interest. But I don't see that either. All I see is vicious little children willing to pander to the poisonous worst in their societies. Nihilists, without one notion of a future.
Then enter the crisis in Syria. Where again plonkers attempted to remove a long established regime without one iota of an idea how to replace it. You'd think the issue in Iraq would've been instructive. But we have one of the greatest refugee crisis and movement of peoples since the second world war. We had people crossing into Greece and Bulgaria by the 100,000. The seas between Turkey and Greece were thick with small boats filled to the gunnels only to turn up to reception centers in a country bankrupted by idiotic monetary policy. But were welcomed by the Greeks from the first. More than could be said about the rest of Europe.
Fast forward to May this year when the EU and Turkey entered a pact where Syrian refugees would be kept in Turkey, by force. Camps would be established. Control centres opened and moneys from the EU would pay for it all.
Then last week we had a coup attempt by a segment of the army. A word of explation here is needed. Turkey can generally speaking be split into a few social segmentations. Liberals, but not as we would know liberals. And religious. The liberals are best explained juxtaposed to the religious. Then the religious can be split into hardliners and middleground. Now the coup attempt was made by a religious segment, and the presidential faction was part of this segment but spalled off some years ago. So, largely what we are seeing now is a civil war in the religious section with the president attempting to become a dictator using the coup as an excuse.
The thing is Turkey, like Syria and before it Iraq, is reacting to inputs wholly derived in chancelleries and state departments in Europe and the US. They are not in control, now. But God knows what we'll get in the future if they don't have sane and non partisan help soon. And truthfully I do not see the new PM in the UK or either candidate for POTUS nor any European with either the brains or the stomach to cleave through the sectional bullshit for the truth is anyone that tries to be Statesmanlike is going to have a short tenure indeed. I'd even be happy with benign self-interest. But I don't see that either. All I see is vicious little children willing to pander to the poisonous worst in their societies. Nihilists, without one notion of a future.
I agree with you that trying to remove a dictator/leader without a plan of succession is not wise as proven out by Saddam/Iraq. I was never in favor of going into Iraq for those reasons. I also agree with you that the U.S is a large part of the blame largely because we can't seem to elect people who have even a slight understanding of middle eastern religious/political interactions. Thus far, it doesn't look like anything will change along that front come November.
ReplyDeleteI know if I was a dictator, the U.S. would become isolationists as much as possible.
As much as "they" can say the things "we" have done abroad are for "our" own good and safety, I have no doubt that this is caused (in part or entirely) by the US. When policy is tied to what a handful of people want due to $$$, it's bound to be a sh!# show. While I understand that due to terrorism, people are afraid and our government should be protecting us, but I'm with Ed. It is probably time for us to get out of the trying-to-manage-all-the-other-countries business and stick to trying to manage our own. The things we've done over the last several years seem to be making it worse, not better. I can understand where the anti-West attitude comes from to some extent. These poor people who are left broken due to these policies, hopelessness is a powerful motivator.
ReplyDeleteI agree that isolationism can look mighty appealing, but I'm not sure it can work for us. That said... I also agree that we need to stop attempting to police the rest of the world and trying to impose our standards on them. We do not truly understand the political/cultural/tribal/religious (take your pick) ways of other countries and just because things don't seem right to us from a humanitarian viewpoint, we can rarely fix things, as heartbreaking as it might seem at times.
ReplyDeleteThere has to be a happy medium between isolation (which I find myself longing for and for which I know won't work) and state-building. It wouldn't be fair for us to withdraw into isolation after the mess of countries that have been made by many of our administrations. The world is a fearful place.
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