69 million page views

strength and sentiment

Reader comment on item: Debating Policy toward Turkey and Iran

Submitted by myth (Germany), Jun 30, 2010 at 03:03

I am afraid Kinzer gets it the wrong way around. It appears the source of strength of Turkey is very much opposing, or in the case of Iran even threatening, the US and its prime ally Israel and getting away with it. According to Kinzer creating and preserving "pro-american sentiment" is a goal of US foreign-policy and so is promoting the turkish model in the muslim world. To me, protecting the USA first and their allies ,which includes myself, comes before any ambitions to find new allies or changing the middle-east for the better. Two years ago an american student talking to me assumed that with cold-war won the Germans probably want the american military to leave. Well, regardless of anti-american-sentiments in Germany nobody wants that, quite the contrary. With the exception of the left party who sent two MPs on the Gaza-flotilla recently. I conclude US foreign policy should leave the pro- or anti-american sentiments to Hollywood or whoever. Even the British enjoy their anti-american sentiments over a glass of beer, but when the time comes they will support the USA. Probably this looks unintuitive to many americans. Last sunday in football was a good illustration of a similar situation: Naturally England hates us in football. But when we win they become our supporters. Why ? Because they see us as as the better team to beat Argentina on saturday on their behalf, and to England that is what matters the most. Quite in the same fashion many, not only in the western world, want the US as the better team to take out Iran's nuclear facilities.

Submitting....

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

<< Previous Comment      Next Comment >>

Reader comments (4) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
strength and sentiment [268 words]mythJun 30, 2010 03:03175009
Turkey and Iran [190 words]RoryJun 30, 2010 02:51175008
Turkey and Iram [219 words]moJul 1, 2010 16:18175008
Reader Comment [21 words]RoryJul 2, 2010 18:00175008

Follow Daniel Pipes

Facebook   Twitter   RSS   Join Mailing List

All materials by Daniel Pipes on this site: © 1968-2024 Daniel Pipes. daniel.pipes@gmail.com and @DanielPipes

Support Daniel Pipes' work with a tax-deductible donation to the Middle East Forum.Daniel J. Pipes

(The MEF is a publicly supported, nonprofit organization under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Contributions are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Tax-ID 23-774-9796, approved Apr. 27, 1998.

For more information, view our IRS letter of determination.)