(Turkey's) Southern Flank

[Sanguine]

Attention was briefly focused on the latest terrorist mass attack on the French Riviera before it was displaced from the front pages by the ongoing coup in Turkey. The fact that France, which has been under a state of emergency since the Paris attacks, was unable to detect let alone prevent the onslaught raised the possibility that Western security simply cannot cope with the Islamist threat any more; that it is no longer a question of will not but cannot.

The Turkish crisis now makes the answer to that question critical.  At this writing a struggle for power is raging in Turkey.  The coup and counter-coup caught the Obama administration, according to news sources, completely by surprise.  That assertion is supported by the fact that it caught John Kerry on the hop, as he returned with a secret agreement to coordinate Syrian military operations with Vladimir Putin. It turned his agreement with Putin, which was doubtless to be presented as a triumph, into a canceled check. It leaves him standing like a man with a fruit shirt, a travel brochure and missing wallet at what he now realizes is the wrong airport.

The shambles was underlined by President Obama's belated statement of support for the embattled Erdogan, who is secreted in parts unknown communicating to followers over FaceTime, even as the man suspected of masterminding the coup is residing in Pennsylvania. Obama is struggling once again with another "unexpected" event looking not a little like a deer caught in the headlights....

https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2016/07/15/southern-flank-2/?singlepage=true#comments

He makes some good points. 

[don-o]