Article

2020-09-13 The Grand Turk

US prepares to quit strategic Incirlik air base amid increasing Turkish belligerence

[ARAB NEWS] ANKARA: A provocative live-fire drill by the Turkish navy off the coast of Cyprus was branded illegal on Saturday, as reports emerged that the US is drawing up plans to withdraw from the strategic Incirlik air force base.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen to Incirlik,” Ron Johnson, the US senator who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee for Europe, told the Washington Examiner. “We hope for the best, but we have to plan for the worst.”

US withdrawal would be a blow to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, suggesting that the US no longer trusts him. “I think, from a defensive posture, we have to look at the reality of the situation that the path Erdogan is on is not good,” Johnson said.

Meanwhile Turkey is conducting naval gunnery exercises from Saturday until Monday off the coast at Sadrazamkoy in northern Cyprus, a part of the island controlled by Ankara but unrecognized by the rest of the world.

The Joint Rescue Coordinatio

Posted by 3dc 2020-09-13 05:10|| || Front Page|| [11132 views ] Top
File under: Sublime Porte

#1 Take all the nukes with you, collapse the buildings we were in, and crater the runway on your way out.

Posted by Theager Borgia1057 2020-09-13 06:27|| 2020-09-13 06:27|| Front Page Top

#2 Move it to Cyprus or Egypt or Romania or Greece.

Posted by AlanC 2020-09-13 07:32|| 2020-09-13 07:32|| Front Page Top

#3 About time

Posted by Alaska Paul 2020-09-13 07:42|| 2020-09-13 07:42|| Front Page Top

#4 Way way past time.

US is drawing up plans to withdraw

I'm sure you have plans to invade all sorts of places around the world, but you never had a plan to cut and run from there? Long time past firing some military suits.

Posted by Procopius2k 2020-09-13 07:51|| 2020-09-13 07:51|| Front Page Top

#5 They evacuated Clark Air Force Base in the PI rather quickly. That literally took a volcano to light the fire under the hide bound uniform leadership to move.

Posted by Procopius2k 2020-09-13 07:58|| 2020-09-13 07:58|| Front Page Top

#6 Funny how moving troops out of Germany to Belgium & Poland seemed more important (urgent).

Posted by Clem 2020-09-13 08:45|| 2020-09-13 08:45|| Front Page Top

#7 I assume the US Air Force has the operational capacity to move their units out of Incirlik WHILE moving troops elsewhere. If not, then what the hell is costing US taxpayers so much?

Posted by Vernal Hatrick 2020-09-13 09:13|| 2020-09-13 09:13|| Front Page Top

#8 A few months ago there was a thread about leaving Incirlik....one of the responses to pulling the nukes was to leave one with a tamper switch.

Posted by Mercutio 2020-09-13 09:14|| 2020-09-13 09:14|| Front Page Top

#9 Long past time. Turkey has been a non-ally since 2003 at least.

Posted by DarthVader 2020-09-13 10:15|| 2020-09-13 10:15|| Front Page Top

#10 The wind down in Afghanistan makes this possible. Virtually all transport flights from Europe to Afghan stopped over in Incirlik; they went so far as to build out a stop over barracks for the grunts heading thru.
(Yes, they could have mid air refueled the transports, but the air tankers have to come from somewhere.)
The string was usually RhineMain - Incirlik - Tajikistan - Baghram. Logistics is everything.

Posted by ed in texas 2020-09-13 11:21|| 2020-09-13 11:21|| Front Page Top

#11

Posted by Jiling Gravitch9209 2020-09-13 12:20|| 2020-09-13 12:20|| Front Page Top

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