Erdoğan Please Note: The U.S. Is A Secular State

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2009/04/obama-please-note-turkey-is-a-secular-state.html
Erdoğan Please Note: The U.S. Is A Secular State

On visit in the United States of America the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke to the majority-Christian population in a speech to the Joint Session of the United States Congress:

I know there have been difficulties these last few years. I know that the trust that binds Turkey and the United States has been strained, and I know that strain is shared in many places where the Christian faith is practiced. So let me say this as clearly as I can: Turkey is not, and will never be, at war with Christianity. In fact, our partnership with the Christian world is critical not just in rolling back the violent ideologies that people of all faiths reject, but also to strengthen opportunity for all its people.

I also want to be clear that Turkey's relationship with the Christian community, the Christian world, cannot, and will not, just be based upon opposition to terrorism. We seek broader engagement based on mutual interest and mutual respect. We will listen carefully, we will bridge misunderstandings, and we will seek common ground. We will be respectful, even when we do not agree. We will convey our deep appreciation for the Christian faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world -- including in my own country. Turkey has been enriched by Christian Turks. Many other Turks have Christians in their families or have lived in a Christian-majority country.

Questions:

1. How would you have reacted to the above?
2. How would the U.S. public react to it?
3. How would the media react?
Comments

From a purely policy-and-practice perspective, you could react either 'high', 'low' or 'null'. That is, you could ramp up and go large, like 'shekinah' in Iraq, you could ramp up and go low, like 'Hunt for Red bin Laden' in Afghanistan, or you could do nothing, like the lip gloss 'smack down' Jung Il got from Obama.

So you have three choices of action every time a foreign leader speaks.

Since SecState has chosen to conflate Afghanistan Pakistan, by the law of the additive property of alternate choices, making GWOT 3 CF into Afghanistan Pakistan Turkeystan would mean 3 + 3 + 3 = 9 possible policy reactions, everytime any one of those three countries or their leaders did or said anything.

Since all public policy is grounded by the fundamentalism of carrot and stick, that is, IF(THEN)ELSE, by the multiplicative property of successive choices (THEN or ELSE), every time one of those three countries or leaders did anything or said anything, US SecState would have 9 x 9 = 81 possible policy choices to make, as opposed to just 6 if we focused solely on Afghanistan.

That's 1350% mission creep by including Turkey in policy decisions on Central Asia.

We need more SecState drones like SecDef needs the 13,000 contractor analysts that Gates just folded into permanent civilian employment status, with pensions, no doubt to shield those contractors from FBI searching out fraud, waste and abuse (embezzlement) in IDIQNB contracts. Now they are Defense employees, safe "inside".

So Turkey? Who gives a freek? We have enough troubles as it is with focus metrics.

Posted by: Poarty Duad | Apr 6, 2009 4:06:58 PM | 1