Prior to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in New York and Washington, DC, Saudi Arabia was Teflon. Saudi leaders charmed their American counterparts. Both Democratic and Republican administrations waved off concerns about let alone consequences for Saudi support for radical Islamism by citing Washington’s security partnership with Riyadh. Much of the blindness, however, was willful. Generations of US diplomats and other senior officials saw Saudi Arabia as their golden parachute. To raise difficult questions was to walk away from a secure retirement.
While the 9/11 Commission exposed warning signs the American intelligence community should have seen coming, it appears a generation later, American policymakers have not learned the lesson.
Turkey has become in the 21st century what Saudi Arabia was in the 20th: A petri dish for extremism and an engine of support for global militancy.
Here’s what Niagara Falls looked like when it was turned off for the first time in 12,000 years
While Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan embraced moderation in his first years in power, it was an illusion. Consider this video of a young Erdogan listening to anti-American bile, or seeking advice at the foot of Afghan terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Erdogan’s own statements prior to his rise to the premiership were a clear reflection of his true agenda. Erdogan’s pro-Western, moderate phrase was the exception, not the rule.
While presidents from George W. Bush to Donald Trump saw in Erdogan a partner, Erdogan’s actions suggest a different agenda.
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