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| The Grand Turk |
| Why a US defence bill seeks a halt to arms sales to Turkey |
| 2018-05-09 |
| [Al Jazeera] A draft bill on US military spending is calling for a temporary halt of American weapons sales to ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... , a key Middle East ally of Washington. Clauses on Turkey in the annual defence policy bill - released by members of the House of Representatives on Monday - are the latest strain in already-sour relations between the two NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... allies. The full text of the draft calls for a temporary arms sales ban against Turkey until the secretary of defence submits a report on the worsening US-Turkey relations to related House committees. The $717bn military bill "prohibits any action to execute delivery of major military equipment to Turkey until the required report is delivered to the specified congressional committees". The proposed US National Defense Authorisation Act must go through various steps before becoming law. Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey's foreign minister, recently told "If the US imposes sanctions on us or takes a similar step, Turkey will absolutely retaliate. But we would not want to do that," Cavusoglu said. Mensur Akgun, chair of the international relations department at Istanbul Kultur University, said the move would not affect Turkey's power to acquire weapons it needs, but would bring a new crisis in bilateral ties. "Turkey has been producing its own weapons more and more as time goes by. Other high-technology weapons that cannot be produced in Turkey can be supplied by other countries. And Turkey is gradually increasing its weapon purchases from Russia," Akgun told Al Jazeera from Istanbul. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #6 but isn't NATO supposed to be made up of democracies and/or republics? I'd argue that the exact form of government is less important than whether they are at least nominally on our side, an area where Turkey seems to be lacking. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2018-05-09 12:34 |
| #5 yah. I thought of that when I was writing the comment. Hoped no one would call me on it.... |
| Posted by: Grererong Bonaparte9840 2018-05-09 12:02 |
| #4 I'll admit that I'm naive, but isn't NATO supposed to be made up of democracies and/or republics? Well, there were those periods of military rule in Greece and Portugal.... |
| Posted by: P2kontheroad 2018-05-09 08:17 |
| #3 OK, I'll admit that I'm naive, but isn't NATO supposed to be made up of democracies and/or republics? And since as Sultana YiyYip I has said "Democracy is a bus that you get off of when you reach your stop", can Turkey be still considered a member of NATO? And if not in NATO, why the hell would you arm another Islamofascist state with delusions of empire? |
| Posted by: Grererong Bonaparte9840 2018-05-09 07:30 |
| #2 Russians are after Constantinople. Catherine the Great. US can assist or not oppose that. Russia is looking at Constantinople. History. Greek Church. Eastern/Second Caesar to Third Caesar/Tsar. Superb beat-down to the Central Asian (Turkic) Moslem Horde. Long reach of the Nordic genius. Would help everyone else in the ME, including USA. |
| Posted by: Spike Hupilet2814 2018-05-09 02:35 |
| #1 Let Turkey go. If they want to snuggle up to Pooty Poot, let 'em. Putin likes to deal with nefarious governments. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2018-05-09 01:32 |