Turkey willing to put troops in Syria 'if others do their part,' Prime Minister says

[xenon54 out]

If Turkey is of the mindset that this problem belongs solely to the US, what happens if or when the US does nothing? Will Turkey also do nothing?

We had the discussion a couple hours earlier, Turkey doesnt have the capability to go in a fullscale asymmetric war in Syria on its own.

 

[usernameless]

If Turkey is of the mindset that this problem belongs solely to the US, what happens if or when the US does nothing? Will Turkey also do nothing?

Why is Turkey required to do something against IS? have they attacked our soil? they took hostages, now that got solved, imo Turkey should avoid confronting fighting isis as long as they dont mess with Turkey's interests anymore and focus on cleaning any possible isis elements inside Turkey. isis is nicely killing pkk/pyd. If anything, Turkey should imo try to make a status quo between isis and pkk/pyd through allowing pkk/pyd supporters enter isis. terrorists killing terrorists, can it get any better? who bled for us when pkk was terrorizing Turkey? where were those g.i. joes? why should our soldiers bleed for the failure of the US?

I simply dont trust the west's intention by putting Turkey and local countries in the front while they probably provide mere air support, some aid and are far away from the mess. Suck Turkey in the mess, turn your back/keep minimal assistance, enjoy Turkey and other local countries getting bogged down in the mess a la Iraq style, maybe mission accomplished for the west and Israel? (which so happens to be largely unaffected by isis while they should be the most hated ones by such isis types...).

 

[al-Hasani]

Why is Turkey required to do something against IS? have they attacked our soil? they took hostages, now that got solved, imo Turkey should avoid confronting fighting isis as long as they dont mess with Turkey's interests anymore and focus on cleaning any possible isis elements inside Turkey. isis is nicely killing pkk/pyd. If anything, Turkey should imo try to make a status quo between isis and pkk/pyd through allowing pkk/pyd supporters enter isis. terrorists killing terrorists, can it get any better? who bled for us when pkk was terrorizing Turkey? where were those g.i. joes? why should our soldiers bleed for the failure of the US?

I simply dont trust the west's intention by putting Turkey and local countries in the front while they probably provide mere air support, some aid and are far away from the mess. Suck Turkey in the mess, turn your back/keep minimal assistance, enjoy Turkey and other local countries getting bogged down in the mess a la Iraq style, maybe mission accomplished for the west and Israel? (which so happens to be largely unaffected by isis while they should be the most hated ones by such isis types...).

If the West really had sincere intentions regarding the ME they would have intervened in Syria LONG ago when Al-Assad was mass-murdering Syrians (Muslim Syrian Arabs and Christians alike, Assyrians, Kurds etc.) long before ISIS/Al-Nusra etc. appeared but instead they choose to do nothing. Now suddenly they decided to act. Moreover there is the Israel question. Ironically when Israel just killed 1500 defenseless Palestinians in Gaza (mainly women and civilians) this Summer the Western world did nothing other than some cheap talk at prime time TV about how unacceptable it is to see death children when you watch the news late at night in Paris, London etc.

The world is a jungle and the strongest are the ones that are making the laws. ME even more so. Turkey should do whatever suits them the best.

What you have written regarding ISIS/PKK/YPG I would do right now if I had any power and was a Turk.

If KSA or any other Arab state is ever in a similar position I would say the same. People in this region of the world and the world in general do not appreciate good gestures and if they do only for a few days. Like we have seen with the ungrateful Kurds in Turkey.

 

[HAIDER]

If all arab come under Turkish flag and give command to Turk General. This could happens.

 

[al-Hasani]

If all arab come under Turkish flag and give command to Turk General. This could happens.

Yes, all 500 million Arabs have just nominated @usernameless , Lion. Can't you see what is going on my friend?

 

[-SINAN-]

he chaos is right there on your border, and ISIS is drawing its recruits from Turkey (tourists, locals, whatever it is). If Turkey is unconcerned, why then should the US "do the dirty work"? The probability of US troops going back into Iraq is near zero, the probably of US troops going into Syria probably is zero.
Can we expect that Turkey will stop demanding no fly-zones, safe zones, and aid to the rebels, since it doesn't care enough to put its own military forces at risk? That would be a welcome change.

"ISIS drawing recruits from Turkey" is well explained by Xenon.

Other than that. As we see, Arabs killing Jihadists, Jihadists killing Kurds and Arabs, Kurds killing Jihadist. And you want Turkey to sort our this mess. How fair, isn't it.

Our soldiers will be in danger, our border towns will be in danger, our civilians will be in danger. And US and it's allies will fly high in the sky without being exposed to danger.

If West wants support from Turkey, they should place their hands under the stone with us. Other wise good luck with your coalition.

 

[HAIDER]

Yes, all 500 million Arabs have just nominated @usernameless , Lion. Can't you see what is going on my friend?

But Turk want full security from ISIS backlash and ISIS are arabs. Turks don't want to be victim of his action.

 

[LeveragedBuyout]

"ISIS drawing recruits from Turkey" is well explained by Xenon.

Other than that. As we see, Arabs killing Jihadists, Jihadists killing Kurds and Arabs, Kurds killing Jihadist. And you want Turkey to sort our this mess. How fair, isn't it.

Our soldiers will be in danger, our border towns will be in danger, our civilians will be in danger. And US and it's allies will fly high in the sky without being exposed to danger.

If West wants support from Turkey, they should place their hands under the stone with us. Other wise good luck with your coalition.

I think that solves it, then. Since it's not a problem, we (the US and Turkey) can sit on our hands and do nothing. Erdogan will stop demanding no-fly zones, safe areas, and arming of the rebels (since none of this is Turkey's problem), and we can resume business as usual.

 

[al-Hasani]

But Turk want full security from ISIS backlash and ISIS are arabs. Turks don't want to be victim of his action.

Why don't you stop trolling for once? I can't believe that you live in the US. For a person that has been here since 2006 (!) and who has a habit of commenting a lot on Arab issues, I am afraid to say my friend, that you know very little about the Arab world, it's politics, the conflicts going on, or the ME as a whole. Which is a shame because a person that spends so much time reading/"discussing" those issues should know more. I also believe that you are a grown-up. A man of age in other words.

First of all you do not need to tell me what Turkey fears or not. We can all figure that out. Secondly calling ISIS "Arab" is actually pretty dumb as about 50% of its members are non-Arabs. What has ethnicities got to do with anything? Of course Arabs will be present because Syria and Iraq are Arab countries. Even the majority.

Just like most of the terrorists in Pakistan are locals. Just like Taliban is fully Afghan (Afghan and Pakistani Pashtuns mainly).

Just stop writing those one-liners will you? I like you but sometimes you are testing my patience. No offense meant whatsoever.

Same with that Turkish general comment above. That was indeed very wise, I have to say. Maybe they or others can clean our asses too while they are at it because we obviously can't.

 

[usernameless]

If all arab come under Turkish flag and give command to Turk General. This could happens.

Yes, all 500 million Arabs have just nominated @usernameless , Lion. Can't you see what is going on my friend?

Thanks, but I much rather prefer equal co-operation with the Arab world instead of a Turkish general dictating the Arab armies. If only the politics of Turkey and some of the Arab countries didn't clash, we would have gotten greater ties.

 

[-SINAN-]

I think that solves it, then. Since it's not a problem, we (the US and Turkey) can sit on our hands and do nothing. Erdogan will stop demanding no-fly zones, safe areas, and arming of the rebels (since none of this is Turkey's problem), and we can resume business as usual.

Mate, be realistic. You are police of the world, i don't think you will sit and watch. The question is will you do it with Turkey or without Turkey. We are fine with either choice.

 

[HAIDER]

Its not troll, Turkish need guarantee to secure its people from backlash of these terrorist. Pakistan lost 70,000 civilian and armed personal in the war on terror and lost over 43 billion dollar of investment . Turkish should go for absolute guarantee from both security and financial guarantee.
But, it doesn't mean Turkish govt has all right to close their eyes from ISIS.

 

[al-Hasani]

Its not troll, Turkish need guarantee to secure its people from backlash of these terrorist. Pakistan lost 70,000 civilian and armed personal in the war on terror and lost over 43 billion dollar of investment . Turkish should go for absolute guarantee from both security and financial guarantee.
But, it doesn't mean Turkish govt has all right to close their eyes from ISIS.

I am not sure what you are replying to because I have never opposed any of that nor commented on it. Me and @usernameless just had a chat regarding the sometimes patronizing and shallow Western "concern". No, I am not anti-Western for obvious reasons so no need to throw that in my head if you are going to reply.

I do not consider you a troll but sometimes you write unmotivated troll posts.

 

[kalu_miah]

Instability and chaos was created both in Afghanistan and Iraq-Syria region by a series of US blunders:
- use of extremist Jihadi Islam as a geopolitical tool to defeat Soviets since 1979 in Afghanistan theater that eventually gave rise to Al Qaeda like groups and eventually the 9/11 event, which then initiated the GWOT by GW Bush Admin
- invasion of Iraq in 2003 and removal of Saddam, and the decision to dissolve Sunni dominated Iraq's Army and Bath Party so majority Shia's could come to power, which then increased Iran's influence in Iraq
- Iran found an opportunity to create a Shia crescent arc, that starts out from Iran and extends via Iraq and Alawi ruled Syria to Hezbollah dominated Lebanon
- Obama, famously the commander in chief found asleep on the steering wheel, or just plain incompetent, who decided not to actively support and develop a moderate resistance force in Syria to topple Assad. Instead he took the line that this is a Shia-Sunni conflict, let these Muslims kill each other as much as they want, what do we care?
- extremist financing in the Syrian conflict came from many US allied countries in the region, but the US looked the other way, due to Obama's hands off approach
- now that IS has taken over large areas, it was still not enough to bring the US into action, only after the IS taunts in the form of beheadings angered the US public enough to result in a public opinion shift. Only after that Obama had no choice but to act

What can we conclude from the above? That the experts sitting in state department are either clueless or incompetent? During Bush era, there was the excuse that neocons controlling every aspects of foreign policy, so state dept. officials were over ruled. But what excuse do the state dept. officials and the entire intelligence community have for this failure during Obama admin? To be fair Obama personally contributed a lot in the Syrian failure in my opinion, while state dept. officials, led by Hilary wanted more active role.

The US is intimately involved in Middle East region, have bases here and are in security partnership with many regional countries. Israel, "the 51st state" is here. So there is no question that the US has a stake. Mistakes by the US unfortunately affects not just the US, but the whole world, specially Muslim world. More than a million lives were lost since 2003 Iraq invasion according to a survey:
Lancet surveys of Iraq War casualties - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hundreds of thousands lives were lost in Afghanistan. Tens of thousands lost lives in Pakistan due to spread of extremism there. And now with the latest Syrian quagmire, we had around 250,000 death so far, while half of Syrian population were displaced and a good portion of them became refugees. And the falling of dominoes all started with US foreign policy of using extremism in Afghanistan.

But the origin of the chaos goes quite a bit farther back than that, if we want to dig up history. It has to do with British and French imperial policy in the region and the breakup of Ottoman empire. The far reaching consequence of that great geopolitical event is still affecting everything that is happening in the region.

The US and regional heavy weight countries must sit down and decide how to understand the source of instability and tackle head on the source of the instability, which is extremist ideology that is being funded by petrodollars (from US backed/allied countries) and fueled by perceived unfair foreign policies of the US. I personally have little confidence that this will happen. In the absence of such all encompassing effort, Turkey, the core rump state of Ottoman empire, which has been at the receiving end of many of these Western blunders which created chaos and instability in the region, should simply not take any active role in any halfhearted ad hoc effort. In the absence of such comprehensive plan, Turkey should rather let the people and countries clean up the mess, who created them in the first place.

 

[LeveragedBuyout]

Instability and chaos was created both in Afghanistan and Iraq-Syria region by a series of US blunders:
- use of extremist Jihadi Islam as a geopolitical tool to defeat Soviets since 1979 in Afghanistan theater that eventually gave rise to Al Qaeda like groups and eventually the 9/11 event, which then initiated the GWOT by GW Bush Admin
- invasion of Iraq in 2003 and removal of Saddam, and the decision to dissolve Sunni dominated Iraq's Army and Bath Party so majority Shia's could come to power, which then increased Iran's influence in Iraq
- Iran found an opportunity to create a Shia crescent arc, that starts out from Iran and extends via Iraq and Alawi ruled Syria to Hezbollah dominated Lebanon
- Obama, famously the commander in chief found asleep on the steering wheel, or just plain incompetent, who decided not to actively support and develop a moderate resistance force in Syria to topple Assad. Instead he took the line that this is a Shia-Sunni conflict, let these Muslims kill each other as much as they want, what do we care?
- extremist financing in the Syrian conflict came from many US allied countries in the region, but the US looked the other way, due to Obama's hands off approach
- now that IS has taken over large areas, it was still not enough to bring the US into action, only after the IS taunts in the form of beheadings angered the US public enough to result in a public opinion shift. Only after that Obama had no choice but to act

What can we conclude from the above? That the experts sitting in state department are either clueless or incompetent? During Bush era, there was the excuse that neocons controlling every aspects of foreign policy, so state dept. officials were over ruled. But what excuse do the state dept. officials and the entire intelligence community have for this failure during Obama admin? To be fair Obama personally contributed a lot in the Syrian failure in my opinion, while state dept. officials, led by Hilary wanted more active role.

The US is intimately involved in Middle East region, have bases here and are in security partnership with many regional countries. Israel, "the 51st state" is here. So there is no question that the US has a stake. Mistakes by the US unfortunately affects not just the US, but the whole world, specially Muslim world. More than a million lives were lost since 2003 Iraq invasion according to a survey:
Lancet surveys of Iraq War casualties - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hundreds of thousands lives were lost in Afghanistan. Tens of thousands lost lives in Pakistan due to spread of extremism there. And now with the latest Syrian quagmire, we had around 250,000 death so far, while half of Syrian population were displaced and a good portion of them became refugees. And the falling of dominoes all started with US foreign policy of using extremism in Afghanistan.

But the origin of the chaos goes quite a bit farther back than that, if we want to dig up history. It has to do with British and French imperial policy in the region and the breakup of Ottoman empire. The far reaching consequence of that great geopolitical event is still affecting everything that is happening in the region.

The US and regional heavy weight countries must sit down and decide how to understand the source of instability and tackle head on the source of the instability, which is extremist ideology that is being funded by petrodollars (from US backed/allied countries) and fueled by perceived unfair foreign policies of the US. I personally have little confidence that this will happen. In the absence of such all encompassing effort, Turkey, the core rump state of Ottoman empire, which has been at the receiving end of many of these Western blunders which created chaos and instability in the region, should simply not take any active role in any halfhearted ad hoc effort. In the absence of such comprehensive plan, Turkey should rather let the people and countries clean up the mess, who created them in the first place.

Will Turkey be satisfied if the US strategy is containment, since the whole world criticizes us when we intervene (as you have done)? If the US experience has revealed one thing, it is that the Muslim world will never tolerate the interference of a Muslim power. The question is, whose dominion does the US end up supporting: Turkey, Saudi Arabia, or Obama's new friend, Iran?

I invite anyone who expects US boots on the ground to read the US press and look at US polls. In the near term, the US is likely to contribute no more than air strikes and potentially weapons and funds, but the real fighting will have to be done by someone else. We're exhausted.