When I came to Washington in 2002, the
Department of Defense was among Turkey's
best friends inside the U.S. government. The
Pentagon considered Turkey a staunch ally, and
uniformed U.S. personnel had a deep affection
for Turkey going back to U.S.-Turkish
cooperation in the Cold War, and then in the
Balkans in the 1990s.
Today, the Pentagon has, for the most part, lost
its fondness for Turkey. This change is a result
of America's shifting sense of Turkey's identity
and role in the NATO alliance. This is not to be
mistaken for outright hostility; Turkey is
formally still Washington's ally. Strictly military
relations are even flourishing; U.S. officers
respect their Turkish counterparts and want to
work with them, and Turkey has friends in
other places in the American government.
Nevertheless, the U.S. military no longer views
Turkey with the same favor.
The transformation of Turkey's standing in the
eyes of the U.S. military is due to Turkish and
American dynamics. Following the September
11 attacks, the U.S. government, including the
military, became preoccupied with identifying
moderate Muslim allies. Turkey benefited from
this endeavor, as the ruling pro-Islamist Justice
and Development Party (AKP) won the elections
in 2002, taking office on a platform of
moderation.
The AKP upset its potential allies in
Washington, however, when it refused to help
Washington in the 2003 Iraq War. Some argue
that the American military never fully
recovered from that break, though the rest of
Washington eventually did. In any case,
bilateral ties recovered gradually once Ankara
started to help the U.S. military in Iraq and
Afghanistan and against al Qaeda -- under the
AKP in the last decade, Turkey became a
logistics hub for U.S. operations in the Middle
East and beyond. In return, Washington started
to offer Turkey intelligence assistance against
the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in
2007, and relations between Ankara and
Washington began to strengthen.
The U.S. military was arguably nearly ready to
let the fallout of the Iraq War go, but the 2010
crisis in Turkish-Israeli ties left that hope
unrealized. The breakdown of ties between the
Pentagon's two key allies in the Middle East left
the U.S. military dumbfounded, but also
frustrated at the AKP government's role in
precipitating the flotilla crisis that led to the
collapse of Turkish-Israeli ties in May 2010.
The U.S. military's confidence in Turkey was
shaken further in 2013 when Turkey decided to
buy a Chinese air defense system, raising rare
public objections from Washington. NATO also
warned that the alliance would never plug the
Chinese system into its own air defense
system. In Washington's view, Turkey added
"insult to injury" with this move -- Ankara had
just turned to NATO to deploy its Patriot
missiles to Turkey against the Syrian threat in
December 2012. Thus, on one hand, Turkey
had no problem relying on NATO's military
support, while on the other, it was purchasing a
system that could not be used to support
Turkey's NATO allies.
Since then, Ankara has been trying to reverse
the damage, as there are signs that Turkey
might buy a European air defense system, but
the harm has been done. The Pentagon sees
this episode as yet another case of an
ideological AKP-run Turkey working with
America's adversaries.
Following a pattern of ups and downs, at the
onset of the Arab Spring, Turkish cooperation
with Washington in Libya rejuvenated hopes for
restoration of the U.S. military's favor for
Turkey. Once again, however, events on the
ground dashed that hope. When the Arab
Spring arrived in Syria, at Turkey's doorstep in
2011, Ankara jumped into the Syrian uprising
ahead of Washington. However, it also turned a
blind eye to the jihadists, who were going into
Syria to fight the Assad regime. It was willing to
ignore these threats because Ankara's primary
goal in Syria has been ousting the Assad
regime. To be fair, Turkey never intended to
support the jihadists. Rather, Ankara believed,
and still hopes that, "Assad will fall, and good
guys will take over, and then these good guys
will clean up the bad guys."
Of course, that has not happened. In the
interim, at least some of the bad guys who
have crossed into Syria have morphed into the
Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS). Ankara's
inability to predict and preempt the jihadist
backlash has added to the Pentagon's concerns
over Turkey. Today, many in the U.S. military
unfortunately view Turkey as a country that
works with America's adversaries in Syria.
Ankara, on the other hand, sees the
radicalization process in Syria differently, and
blames a lack of U.S. support for the moderate
rebels as the primary cause for the rise of
jihadists in the conflict.
Ironically, despite their different approaches,
the ISIS threat has brought Turkey and
Washington closer, and the countries are now
combatting ISIS bilaterally. In a technical sense,
U.S.-Turkish military ties are flourishing. But
behind this aura of deep cooperation, key
differences persist. For instance, Turkey's proxy
on the ground in Syria is Ahrar al-Sham, a
group that is only one degree removed from al
Qaeda. Conversely, America's proxy on the
ground in Syria is the Party for Democratic
Unity (PYD), which is only one degree removed
from the PKK.
Thirteen years of policy differences between
Ankara and Washington have taken their toll on
the U.S. military's views of Turkey: many in the
Pentagon see Turkey not as a staunch ally, but
as a wayward country in NATO that wears
religion and ideology on its sleeve -- in
violation of alliance etiquette. NATO is like a
polite dinner party with no room for
discussions on religion, and the AKP's Turkey is
like the awkward guest at that dinner party who
insists on discussing religion.
Subsequently, the U.S. military is at best
agnostic towards Turkey -- a stark change from
the pre-AKP years, when most uniformed
personnel had deep affection for Ankara.
Washington and Ankara may work together
militarily, but, unfortunately, the U.S. military's
fondness for Turkey is over, at least for the
time being.
Source; https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/how-the-u.s.-military-lost-its-favor-for-turkey

Missy89, AppleYard, Shymm3x
food is ready.

Truthpallbearer:
Missy89, AppleYard, Shymm3x
food is ready.

Must every Nation bow to America demand.

America want the World at it feet

That is erdogan and turkey for you. Quarrel today, do business tomorow. They don't give a dime what the US think.

Appleyard:
That is erdogan and turkey for you. Quarrel today, do business tomorow. They don't give a dime what the US think.

I'm a big fan of Sultan Erdogan