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We have no friends in this part of the world. Our track record there is miserable, and Muslim countries hate us. I only hope that things don't get worse and people on leave don't end up getting kidnapped.
Turkey attracts more than 31.5 million foreign tourists a year ranking as the 6th most popular tourist destination in the world. Approximately 1 million are American. I suspect that number is about to drop drastically.
Ataturk's corpse is probably spinning so fast you could probably power Istanbul if you attached him to a generator.
The increased Islamatization of the once feircly secular govermnet; purging the militery of opposition forces; and setting himself up in a very Putinesq position of power all fly in the face of Turkey's post-Ottamon role in the region.
That said, there's no way we're kicking them out of NATO. They are basically the military power in the region and they are a mostly stable but flawed democracy. Turkey is also the only NATO member besides the US, UK and France keeping up their end of the deal to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence.
It's not over yet. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has stated today that the attackers will "pay the price for their actions." He added, "The relevant Turkish authorities are conducting a full investigation... We will take all necessary precautions to ensure that such isolated incidents do not occur again." It's not clear yet whether the people arrested would reappear in court or if others would be arrested. I'm sure the ruling AKP would love to take out this anti-government organization.
Turkey has historically been a US puppet and endangered its own soldiers' lives plenty of times around the world solely for US interests. It's very telling that all these hate campaigns emerge in the US any moment Turkey isn't 100 percent cooperative on every US intervention, even when it involves Turkey's borders.
It's not exactly the first time American soldiers have been harassed overseas, and it's not like Americans have never humiliated Turkish soldiers.
If I was in the Oval Office I would cut off all economic and military aid for Turkey. The Turks are very reliant on us for spare parts and upgrades for most of their military equipment.
The supreme irony of this attack is that the attackers are students who claim to idolize Ataturk who was very pro-Western and secular. Go figure
Seriously, only western countries and some "Far East" countries like Americans.
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