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Thursday, October 12, 2017

Adjusting to Reality

If Turkey continues to trend away from NATO, and eventually leaves the alliance, America should adjust our regional unified commands to move Turkey from European Command (USEUCOM) to Central Command (USCENTCOM).

This is our map right now:


If Turkey is trying to recreate the Ottoman Empire--in geographic influence if not in actual territorial control which is beyond their capabilities--we will need to treat Turkey as a part of the Middle East and not the southern flank of NATO.

As Erdogan exploits and encourages Islamic governance over Western-centric governing secularism, Turkey is moving from Europe to the Middle East anyway.

UPDATE: Are you kidding me?

America’s bilateral relationship with Turkey has suffered gravely in the months since Donald Trump became president. Dynamics that began years ago have intensified in recent weeks, resulting in a U.S.-Turkish relationship that looks more adversarial every day.

It's Trump's fault? Is that what the author is implying with that timeline?

That ship sailed long ago as Islam began to push out secularism in Turkey.

Turkey's relationship with Germany is also quite rocky these days. Is that Trump's fault, too?

And you could easily say that Turkey's bilateral relationship with America has suffered gravely since Erdogan became president of Turkey.