This is truly sad and totally foreseeable. It was so badly executed as a coup, that you almost wonder if it was a trojan rebellon…and the real enemy was Erdogon was residing inside so that he could later perform some sort of kabuki dance with the Turkish government. The coup gave him exactly the ‘excuse’ he needed to stop acting or paying lip service to democracy. Truly, if all the people and entities that he is arresting, firing, closing, or purged were really part of a coup, he would have stood no chance at all of surviving. This is nothing other than a cleansing.

I bet, in fact, I KNOW, that there were many good people who did not support the coup and did not resist because they were SURE that it would be put down quickly and peacefully and that would be it. Peace and democracy would return and everything would be normal and now as they see the purging, the emasculation of schools, the eviscerating of the press, the castration of any platform with a dissenting view, the shut down of charities, they are wondering what dragon has been unleashed from their nightmares.

It freaks me out that there are some who blame Trump for this. Really? The press can’t even get the quote right, he did not say he would pull he US out of NATO or turn his back on allies. He DID say he wanted to relook at our commitment to NATO and see if it was still relevant to National Security — what the heck is wrong with that? He did say, if they are fulfilling their obligations, then we fulfill our obligations. If they are not, we MIGHT not. Sounds rather common sense in that respect…don’t pay your premiums on your car insurance and get into an accident, the insurance company is not going to bail you out…More importantly, the guy is just an American citizen. He may be running for president and a nominee, but that is like a Brig Gen select…you know what that is…a COLONEL…just like right now all Trump is: an American citizen, with some star power…sort of like Matt Damon saying he wants to confiscate all guns in the US…amusing, but can’t do it.

As an aside, putting pressure on member nations to fulfill their defense obligations actually increases collective security, not weakens it. If a member gets too weak, it could invite attack, which would pull all those who were doing what they were supposed to be doing, into combat defensive operations under article 5 at a time they did not choose to. In collective security, it is not the strongest that have to worry about attack, it is the weak. The law of the Serengeti…

The world leaders WHO COULD HAVE done something, took hours to put out a weak statement — uhhh…we want a bloodless resolution of this, we can’t get involved, we hope everyone will support a democratic result…perfectly rational statements, eminently statesmanlike and politically astute. Those could have done something and they did not, but people still blame Trump?

We knew within minutes of the coup starting what the ramifications would be if it failed, the impact it could have on us and US national security. We knew within minutes we had US Forces who were prisoners on the base, prohibited from travel, limited in communication, without electricity, without freedom of movement, and US equipment/forces prevented from prosecuting planned strike missions against ISIS, we knew, and we did nothing. This is on us, NATO, and the world. More importantly, it is on the people of Turkey who have chosen to go this path by their own free will. It is definitely time to weep at the fading of freedom there. The question is, does this fulfill the wishes and desires of the Turkish people? THAT is something only they can answer.