TURKEY: MENACE TO THE WEST AND ENORMOUS NATO LIABILITY

One of the most persistent myths of American diplomacy has been Turkey as the "key ally" of the West in Asia.

The history of this myth begins in the immediate post-WW2 years, when Stalin was the bad bear and the USSR the threat to civilization. Turkey, who had judiciously sat on the sidelines during the war determined not to repeat her WW1 mistakes, was brought into NATO to block Russian egress into the warm Mediterranean waters. Paired with Greece in a strategic block, Turkey learned quickly how to milk the alliance with great effect. At the same time, Turkey also practiced her "bad girl" skills by demanding, objecting, twisting and turning, and groaning and moaning when her tantrums did not move her "allies" instantly.

Turkey, America enthused, was a true "democracy." Well, kind of. Modern Turkey, created in 1923 by a dictator, Mustafa Kemal, swimming in a sea of innocent Christian blood, came to possess Eastern Thrace, a sliver of Europe, by historical treaty accident. Run by the army as the executor of Kemal's secular legacy, Turkey became "parliamentary" but with no other true European else to recommend her. Irrespective, "geopolitical reasons" and "national security" became the permanent excuses in Western capitals for coddling Ankara and ignoring Turkey's abysmal Asiatic domestic condition and her blood-soaked history.

Fast forward.

The rise of Tayiip Erdogan to power pulled Turkey toward her natural milieu, viz. Islamic Asia. An unabashed fundamentalist Muslim dressed in Western frock, Erdogan proved to be a master of deception and a ruthless dictator. Hailed by the inane West as a "moderate Muslim" capable of teaching other Muslims the benefits of Western democracy, Erdogan moved swiftly. He undermined the army through the methodical fabrication of "conspiracies" that allowed him to launch repeated purges of the officers corps. He stuffed public administration with his cronies and appointed friendly judges. He assailed secular education and re-introduced "proper" Muslim attire for women on campus. He suppressed Turkey's surprisingly free press and jailed scores of journalists. When popular discontent exploded in riots in 2013, Erdogan sent out his heavily armed police to deal with the troublemakers. Within days, the demonstrations died down and the morgue registered the price of "peace."

Erdogan's AK Islamic party has touched the soul of a country that NEVER stopped being "conservative" (read: fundamentalist) Muslim. Asiatic throngs, waving red and black banners, mob the Great Mogul wherever he goes. An attempted army coup in July, gave Erdogan the perfect excuse to launch a brutal purge reminiscent of that master figure of wholesale slaughter, Uncle Josef Stalin. Thousands of "common criminals" have been let go free so that jails have room for the thousands of purge victims. The army, already weakened, has been decapitated and the courts brought under severe Muslimite discipline. Secular Turks are paying attention and the feeling is one of premonition, foreboding, and fear. Many are preparing to leave the country ahead of the next round of purges that could bring mass executions to Erdogan's repertoire.

The emerging Turkish sultan has sustained Islamic terrorism with a passion in his quest to unseat Bashar Assad in Damascus. Turkey has been a key ingredient of the catastrophic Syrian civil war that has sent millions running across borders to demand entry into developed Europe. Erdogan has used illegal immigration and refugee flows as weapons of mass destruction in his blackmailing of a hapless European Union into lifting visa restrictions for 80 million Turks. The arm twisting hasn't had the desired effect so far and Erdogan is growing more agitated (and dangerous) by the day.

It is more than obvious that Turkey is now an Islamic menace to the West and an enormous NATO liability yet pro-Turkish lobbies in Washington and some European capitals won't give up. Although the myth of Turkey as the "front line" of the West in Asia has crumbled, people who have sustained whole careers by supporting Turkish demands are fighting tooth and claw to convince an increasingly unwilling audience that the Great Mogul is still indispensable to us. Unless there is a radical change of course in both the U.S. and Europe, Erdogan's antics can, and will, bring damage to Western interests that will make Iran look like a graduate convent girl.