Article

2011-02-12 The Grand Turk

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by 2011-02-12 12:16|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 This could be very bad, but it could also be very good.

To start with, Turkey is NATO standard everything, but Syria is still Soviet and Russian everything. So compatibility will be like trying to put Ford F-150 replacement parts into a 1957 DeSoto Fireflite.

The Turks, for their part, will quickly realize that Syria's army is third rate, but there will be a ton of intelligence information about them valuable to NATO and Israel. And since a lot of their officers don't give a flip about the Islamist government, information shall freely flow.

Posted by Anonymoose 2011-02-12 14:03|| 2011-02-12 14:03|| Front Page Top

#2 And since a lot of their officers don't give a flip about the Islamist government, information shall freely flow.

Not so fast, Kowalski. Ima thinking the officers noticed who the strong horse is on Friday. And the younger ones have a different, shall we say, world view than their elders. This is another step in the withdrawal of Turkey from Nato. And it will be confirmed when the TEA Partiers cut off foreign aid and the upper echelons of the officer corps no longer get their vigorish and the lower level start getting Soviet toys to play with. Because they're cheap and plentiful.

And if that isn't enough, read about the purge of the Turkish senior command that occurred Friday.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2011-02-12 16:01|| 2011-02-12 16:01|| Front Page Top

#3 The Islamists would assume that the Turkish military is just like every other organization in the Middle East. An Asian model of a small elite of big bosses, and everyone else are petty subordinates. If you take out the small elite, the organization ends. This was how things were done for 1500 years.

However, the Turkish army isn't like that. It was created and composed in the western model. And this might make all the difference in the world.

Say, for example, if Obama decided to start arresting all US military flag officers. How many of them would he have to arrest before the military became loyal to him? And if he decided to replace all these military men with leftist college professors, how long do you think they would last as "generals"?

The point is that the game is far from being over. The western model assumes that leaders will be taken out, one way or another. But that leaves all those lower ranking officers that might have a thing or two to say about that.

But time will tell.

Posted by Anonymoose 2011-02-12 18:31|| 2011-02-12 18:31|| Front Page Top

#4 Suppose every flag officer in the US was being paid $500,000 by Obama and was a registered Democrat. And further suppose every Captain and Lieutenant was getting squat, and had a picture of Sarah Palin in his locker and was a member of the TEA Party. That's closer to the makeup of the Egyptian Army. Fragging? Oh, the allowance for the flag officers has been cut off. So sorry.

Game over. Insh'Allan.

Unless some general is willing to toast the MB. In which case, he'd better make sure the check from Abdullah clears first. Cause B. Hussein will leave him twisting slowly, slowly in the wind.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2011-02-12 20:08|| 2011-02-12 20:08|| Front Page Top

23:55 trailing wife
23:22 Dale
23:17 Anguper Hupomosing9418
23:11 Secret Asian Man
22:57 Dale
22:55 g(r)omgoru
22:48 g(r)omgoru
22:44 g(r)omgoru
22:43 g(r)omgoru
22:38 newc
22:15 Zhang Fei
22:06 Nimble Spemble
21:54 trailing wife
21:53 Procopius2k
21:45 trailing wife
21:19 crosspatch
21:08 crosspatch
21:00 crosspatch
20:12 tipper
20:08 Nimble Spemble
19:52 Nimble Spemble
19:49 Nimble Spemble
19:45 tipper
19:37 Zhang Fei