Hard as it is to believe, things are getting even more violent and destabilizing in the Middle East. Today comes news of a terrorist attack in Ankara, the capital of Turkey.
Two devastating explosions struck Saturday morning in the heart of Ankara, the Turkish capital, killing more than 80 people who had gathered for a peace rally and heightening tensions just three weeks before snap parliamentary elections.
At least 86 people were killed and 186 were wounded, said the health minister, Mehmet Muezzinoglu.
The blasts, which appeared to be the deadliest terrorist attack in modern Turkey’s history, occurred near Ankara’s main train station just as groups of Kurds and leftists planned to march to protest the recent resumption of armed conflict between the Turkish state and Kurdish militants. It is a conflict that has been waged for nearly three decades, but in recent times the two sides seemed on the path to peace.
The Turks are fighting the Iraqi Kurds (again), but Turkey has also agreed to cooperate with the US against the Islamic State and the Assad regime, providing air bases, among other things. In addition to the Iraqi Kurds, their Syrian counterparts are also allies of the US, and the Syrian Kurds have come under Tuekish attacks as well. This will be on your final exam, so pay attention.
This would all be really funny if wasn’t for the thousands of deaths and millions of refugees that this clusterfuck of a situation has created, which have resulted in great instability in otherwise stable places like - Turkey, for example. Thanks Dick Cheney!
Does anyone else see the problem inherent in the following?
1. The Assad regime is fighting against the Islamic State
2. Turkey is fighting against Assad and the Iraqi and Syrian Kurds
3. Russia is fighting against the Islamic State and in support of Assad
4. Iran is fighting against the Islamic State and in support of Assad
5. The US is fighting against Assad and the Islamic State, and is allied with both Turkey and the Kurds.
6. The US is fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, after they supported the Taliban when it was fighting the Soviet Union.
There are no good actors in the region. Period and of sentence!! We failed miserable when we installed a government in South Viet Nam. we failed miserably when we installed a government in Iran. We failed miserably when we installed a government in Iraq. We need to get the hell out yesterday. Let Russia waste its time, money, and people playing at king of the hill.
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