By Stephen Dietrich
Throughout his tenure, President Barack Obama’s ineffectual leadership has been criticized again and again by opponents.
There is no better example than what is happening in Turkey right now — and once again, it’s more of the same from Obama.
An Islamist authoritarian take-over is happening and it threatens the integrity of the democracy of one of our closet allies. As the premier superpower of the world, the United States must act quickly if there’s hope of stopping Turkey from being seized in an iron grip of dictatorship.
But it’s apparent that Obama will do nothing but remain silent because, some critics say, he fears our access to the air base in Icirlick, Turkey would be revoked.
It’s shameful.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to receive sweeping new powers for the next three-months by loyal Turkish lawmakers, new powers that will enable Erdogan to expand his crackdown on those suspected in last week’s military coup attempt.
Erdogan will use this failed coup as justification for his Stalinesque purge of intellectuals, state officials, rival politicians, military leaders and journalists that are not blindly obedient to his Islamist vision for the country.
The purge happening in Turkey is staggering. A comprehensive list of those fired was posted by a user of the social media site, Reddit — and it’s shocking.
20th July
- All Turkish academics banned from traveling abroad
- 245 Sports Ministry personnel suspended
- 300 Energy Ministry and 184 Custom Ministry employees dismissed
- 8 top-level parliamentary executives removed
- Education Ministry suspends 6,538 in second wave of dismissals
- Education Ministry shuts down 626 educational institutions, mostly private
- 3213 ham radio licenses revoked
19th July
- 30 governors of 99 fired
- 180 intelligence officials (MIT, Turkey’s national intelligence agency) suspended
- Demand for all 1,577 University Deans resignation, 21,000 private teachers licenses revoked and 15,200 Ministry of Education personnel fired
- 257 personnel at PM’s office dismissed & ID’s seized
- 492 state religious personnel (Diyanet) removed
- 24 news/media outlets broadcast licenses withdrawn
- 393 personnel in Ministry of Family and Social Policy dismissed
- 86 Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) employees and 51 Borsa Istanbul (national stock exchange) **employees dismissed
- All Turks require extra documentation to travel outside country
18th July
- 1,500 Finance Ministry officials suspended
- 3,000,000 civil servants banned from going on holiday/leaving country
- 9,000 state officials in Interior Ministry, including 7,899 police officers, fired
17th July
Considering the scale of these purges, historical precedent, and Erdogan’s clear intent to re-implement the death penalty, it’s not far fetched to imagine that arrests, kangaroo courts and mass executions will follow. That would simply be following a historical pattern that has been repeated time and time again.
This is the reality, and it’s happening in a NATO ally. Whether you agree with the NATO alliance or not, it still represents a diplomatic commitment we made to the world.
And right now — today — Turkey’s democracy is on the brink of collapse.
Our founding fathers wrote that God granted inalienable rights to all men and women to be free, and that we — the citizens of the United States of America — hold that truth to be self-evident.
It is the the grand ideal of our republic, and the United States has never shied from defending that truth.
Around the world and throughout history we have stood up for democracy. At Yorktown, on San Juan Hill, in the trenches in France and the skies over Tokyo, the jungles of Vietnam and the streets of Fallujah, our young men and women died for a noble cause — the defense of freedom.
As the leader of the greatest and most powerful country in the world, our president is tasked with continuing this defense.
A strong president uses our vast military and economic strength as diplomatic leverage to push back against dictators. Under President Ronald Reagan’s leadership, we won the Cold War with our unmatched economic might. Under President John F. Kennedy’s steel resolve, we forced a Soviet fleet with nuclear missiles at our doorstep to retreat without firing a shot.
Under Obama’s ineffectual leadership, we get yet another Islamic dictatorship.
Turkey isn’t a third-world country. It is a critical ally of the United States. It is a key member of the NATO alliance. It has been promoted throughout the Muslim world as a shining example of democratic governance.
The world depends on us — it depends on our nation to be a reliable beacon of hope, freedom and democracy.
Obama continually fails to uphold that standard. Instead, he is being bullied over an air base by an Islamist authoritarian that clearly has his eyes on establishing a dictatorship.
Our president’s inaction in Turkey is unacceptable — and unsurprising.
— Stephen Dietrich is the Managing Editor of The Horn News
The middle east is in a state that makes the 4th century look progressive. Europe is in crisis as a result. China is seizing land in the South China Sea. Blame the leadership sure.Also blame our citizens. Close to half our population is on some sort of welfare program. Malaise would be a step up. Apathy is the new national past time.
How do you think that America will police or bully the world and still lower American budget deficits and still have resources to make America peoples domestic well-being great?. If it is not voodoo economics that can accomplish your amorphous and satanic thinking, it will be a journey to Fantasy- Island or a bridge to nowhere.
Nnamdi, if the Governent oversight office has its way we can save 2/3 of what is being wasted now.
We have known for over 20 years that while you can purchase a toilet seat for under $ 20, the military has being paying up to $ 600. Thousands of items such as these exist.
A government contractor I spoke with some time was appalled by how government handles our money. He was asked to supply some vehicles and he also had some spare parts (snowmobiles). He was told that the expensive equipment is just being dumped, not repaired. He was just shaking his head, about the waste of tax payer funds. And then the same dumb government implies that it must the people who collect retirement that make us broke. – That is when someone like Trump is really helpful.
Read the guy’s books. He signs most checks for his business, for that same exact reason, as people are much less likely to try to rip him off. We need that thinking, not complacent stupid thinking that “oh, what I do, what can we do, it’s all lost..” NOT !!! – All it takes to immediately adopt a NEWS MINDSET, and all can start to turn around. — Comments like yours accomplish nothing positive, yet if you look at it from another angle, you can do much good.
Nnamdi: Probably if billions of our tax dollars weren’t wasted on WIC, EBT, Sec. 8 housing etc., on able bodied foreign and domestic folks then perhaps the USA’s domestic situation would be quite bright.
Thanks Main Street. Add to it the expense of DHS lately trucking in (illegal) family members of the illegal aliens already here, while ordering the Border Patrol to stand down, we could add a few more dollars. Sanctuary cities alone cost a fortune, so do illegal births of illegal alien babies in our hospitals.
May I suggest we get NOW rid of the (dumb) process by which anyone who is born in the US becomes a citizen ? I understand we are THE ONLY COUNTRY in the world that has this (Dumb) rule. Parent are not here legally – baby is illegal alien too !!!! – Campaign on that.
Jeane Green – Well said, “PARENT ARE NOT HERE LEGALLY – BABY IS ILLEGAL ALIEN TOO”. Excellent idea. Some invisible hands are trying to destroy the foundation of this Country and doing some illegal things that only a sick and retarded persons will do. Some acts Government doing is so dumb that make me puke. This is a wrong way this Country is going and if some wise people do not act and save then we are doomed.
Children BORN OF ILLEGAL PARENTS SHOULD AND MUST BE ILLEGAL AS WELL. MR. TRUMP WILL HAVE TO ADDRESS THIS ISSUE, OR ELSE WE WILL CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THESE PEOPLE WHO ALL THEY DO IS PUT THEIR HANDS OUT FOR FOOD STAMPS, MEDICAID AND FREE BOOKS, AND EVERYTHING THEY THINK THEY ARE ENTITLED TO. LETS GET THIS BALL ROLLING AND KEEP HAMMERING ON THIS ISSUE.
Good point. Our borders are a major issue in several ways. Hopefully, this is one of the ways Trump will clamp down on illegals just walking in the front door without even knocking.
I agree, STOP the nonsense , please,,it will ok IF mr. Trump gets in office, just you sit and see!!
I believe Australia has the same rule. Land on our beaches gives you the right to government funded lawyers to chase their right to stay in the country. This costs millions of dollars. Given Obama’s history, America will be sliding down that same moronic path. If I was an American citizen, Trump would have my respect and vote. I note that most threads that give a bad review of D. Trump have very strange names I can’t pronounce.
absolutely agree, our government spending is out of control, everyone has a buddy that sells something and is paid for in our childrens flesh. Our military is so depleted right now that sending our troops to yet another place would be sending pigs to slaughter, Obama will no doubt call for Turkey refugees to come to America and this just can’t happen, we need a new President ( Trump ) and we need him today.
Hear, Hear!
It’s probably in the low trillions now; the figure I saw for what we spend on illegal aliens alone is $345 billion per year, and that doesn’t include the costs associated with Americans who are maimed or murdered by illegals (hospital, counseling, funeral).
This is why it isn’t too expensive to send them home – it’s far less expensive than supporting them for another year.
“… he is being bullied over an air base by an Islamist authoritarian that clearly has his eyes on establishing a dictatorship.”
I don’t believe that Obama is doing what he’s doing because he’s being bullied. I think he is licking his chops at the prospect of Evil America being forced under the heel of a brutal Islamic World Caliphate, and because of that he actually WANTS the kind of thing going on in Turkey right now.
There’s a reason why he called America a Muslim country early in his first term; it was a message to the Muslims that he’s prepared to hand us over.
Both Obama and Erdogan are very pro-Muslim and pro-Islamist. They would love Sharia to be the law of the land.
No, not our pastime but that of our leaders. We are not all so dim witted. Mainstreet has something to say and we need to listen.
Obama embarrasses America in America as well. We have an Islamist as our ‘president’ and Turkey has an Islamist as theirs?? By the way its nice to have an airbase in Turkey but with aircraft carriers we can have airbases anywhere.
We can of course open our bases back up in Greece. Right next door. Remember when the Philippines tried to hold us up when the new status of forces agreement was being negotiated? We took our stuff and moved to Okinawa, Korea and Guam. And like Peter says we have Aircraft carrier groups as well.
Leaving Greece with an even WORSE economy! I love Greece and the Greeks, but what in the world were their leaders thinking?
Of course, the leaders never pay the price for their stupidity or evil doing.
You know he believes everyone loves him. He is delusional he said under his admin there has been less violence than we’ve had for decades. He says we are exceptional because we accept immigration. He has himself overblown and he sees and hears what he likes and lies about the rest. Why he wasn’t’impeached is beyond me. He broke his oath of office. Ignoring our constitution.
Obama is an antiAmerican plant. How
sad that there are enough brain dead
Dumbocraps who gave this socialist “plant “a chance to thrive sufficiently long to destroy the only real Democracy. Oh well, brain dead are alive and thriving and voting for Hillary who is prepared to add the final nail to
the coffin . Democracy is in intensive care and rapidly approaching terminal status and Hillary has the final injection to insure its death.
Rest In Peace USA ( assured if Hillary wins)
What “brain dead Dumbocraps” are you referring to? Buffett, Soros, Zuckerberg-Chan and most hedge fund managers? I never thought of billionaires are dumb but I guess your IQ must be off the charts. I laugh whenever people give so much credit/blame to Obama; as if an unwealthy, black, socialist could outwit the elite class. People avoid this question like a plague: Why do billionaires (mostly caucasian and Jew) fund the campaigns of Obama and Clinton? Notice how nobody wants to talk about this? There is an answer to this. But atheists can never find it.
Because there IS such a thing as evil.
“We must recognize it and defeat it, or we will go down to darkness.” (Line from the BBC version of Agatha Christie’s “The Pale Horse” – and I wholeheartedly agree.
Obama is a BIG EMBARRASSMENT TO AMERICA AND THE TRUE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
He should NOT BE PERMITTED TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY. NO BODY THAT HE HAS VISITED INCLUDING AFRICA DON’T WANT HIM TO EVER COME BACK. THE QUEEN REFUSED TO EVEN MEET HIM ON HIS TRIP TO ENGLAND.
WAKE UP . WE HAVE VERY FEW TRUE AMERICANS IN OUR GOVERNMENT AT THIS TIME.
AND THEY BETTER UNDERSTAND THEY WILL BE REMOVED WITH OR WITH OUT TRUMP. THEY BETTER KNOW WE HAVE HAD IT> CIVIL WAR???
WE WILL CLEAN HOUSE. JUST STAYED LOCKED AND LOADED.
THEY HAVE A HUGH SURPRISE COMING.
You are totally mistaken. The Queen did not refuse to meet Obama during his trip to England. He and Michelle had lunch with the Queen and Prince Phillip at Windsor Castle.
The rest of your paranoid rantings make no sense,
Obama is actually quite effective in the plan of his NWO masters who love to create chaos , and then call for more control, which is of course by them.
So it really is up to us, not to expect the big daddy to take care of our needs, security included. Using our heads is step one. Assuming that the outer power is not for our good is step two. Power to the people is step 3. Expect nothing from the government, take care of things. Like our Founding Fathers told us. That mind set will allow us to shift the invisible sea-saw of powers.
OBAMA WAS FROM DAY ONE A CON AMD FAKE PRESIDENT.
HE FOOLED THE WORLD.
CON SWEET TALKER.
FAKED HIS WAY TO THE WHITE HOUSE
IF YOU STUPID YOU GET CONED.
PERIOD
It’s not assured just because Hillary wins. Many things that were alllowed through when Obama was calling the shots won’t get through Trump’s safety net.
THis article insinuates that Obama does not want an islamic dictatorship in Turkey. I do not agree. I do not think, and his advisors, are so stupid they did no t see this coming. He is choosing to allow it and we will suffer the consequences for centuries along with the Turkish people. So sad. If Hil is elected, what will our country become?
OF COURSE he wants an islamic dictatorship in Turkey; he wants an islamic dictatorship in America, too. He, nor his advisors are stupid, cunning would be a better description, and ‘a pack of traitors’ would be an even better description. You can bet that the democrat party’s “Voter Fraud’ machine will be operating at maximum speed for the November elections. America is in a fight for its life, against a gang of ruthless thugs, and thanks to international pirate, George Soros, a well-financed gang of ruthless thugs. If I were the president, one of my first acts would be to send a Seal Team out to grab that scoundrel by the scruff of the neck; he’s got a LOT to answer for.
Yes he does. Along with his four sons!!!!!! Terrifying to think what that radical pervert has done and continues to do to the Western world.
Nancy, I appreciate your comment very much. In order for all of us to be more effective, we can start by really paying attention to our language…Terrifying, scary, and other expressions of the kind, shut down our ability to think. When tossed into fearful state , unless trained otherwise , most people go into the “avoid” state as we see all around.
A wonderful book by an author who researched why some people survive disasters, while many die in them, she found that majority of people freeze and wait for instructions ! So instead of feeding into that state of emotions by our words, we need to use words that elicit action – like “This way, the boats are waiting for us…go forward to the door on airplane wing.” Teaching people THINK for themselves, and getting rid of the “policitacally correct (says who is correct ?) goo” is the first step to making a huge change for our country.
And stunning to think that someone actually thought he would make a great addition to America, and signed his citizenship papers!
The last time there was an Islamic dictatorship in turkey-4 million Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Christians were slaughtered.
And this time the world Muslim population is much larger, so that the percentage that is radical (as we are constantly told) is a much higher number of terrorist monsters than the previous time.
Can]t wait till this so called pres is out and we have someone in office who we can be proud to call Mr President.
Get ready for Ms AntiAmerica. Folks in this country suffer from serious brain death. In my travels I silently listen and watch and I see many braindead who confirm their deficiency
each time I hear the women extol the virtues of Hillery Rotten. Barf
If stupid thin skin favor boy get elected the American people will be in a war in less than 3 months and he will become a dictator of Us.God have mercy on America
???
Donnie…YOU are stupid. You’re in the liberal left so we don’t expect anything different from you.
Sherylynne – AMEN to that !
Who?
And to think the president sign a bill allowing for NATO military and US military to take action against the american people on American soil so we better wake up to the reality this is going to happen here.
This ole man won’t even see the damage that Hilary will do to this nation should she be elected. But you will. Please in GOD’s name anyone except Hillary Clinton.
Yes Robert, I really agree!!!
Obama is the definition of embarrasment!
Will the real Americans please stand up? Get ready America because the shit is about to hit the fan so prepare yourself and choose your team wisely. TEAM TRUMP!!
Obama is an embarrassment to our nation!
so is Killary
Look at the bright side. What ever is said about Obama one thing is for sure, he is an habitual lire and a pompous ass.
Bright side compared to what – that he’s an evil monster who has betrayed 300 million Americans to his fellow evil monsters, his Muslim Brotherhood brothers?
People most educated have no common sense. Unless they are.told what to do they cannot decide for themselves. Obama is and has been a disgrace to our nation and every nation in the world along with the clintons. Hopefully, we get someone that thinks beyond money in their own pockets and thinks about the people of our nations. Otherwise we working class people that give our tax dollars will perish. At this point Trump is our only hope. He is and will not be guided by anyone. Yes we maybe in an outright war, but it is pending on our soil now by Obama’s Islamic cronies. He wants to destroy America. He wants to be king. If America doesn’t’t open their eyes NOW there will be no America. God Bless us all.
Dale, thank you …Some educated people are fine, yet a great majority had often “common sense taught out of them”.
A guy farming in my neighborhood has common sense – he looks at the sky before he does something outside. The educated neighbors look on TV before they do something, check their cell phones telling them what to do.
The farmer checks the Farmers Almanach, the educated guys check Wall Street Journal, that tells them to buy when markets go up, and sell when markets go down…God forbid you could loose some money …
Educated well paid people are often very afraid they could loose their reputation…and then their jobs. That is also their case.
I have a good education, from various sources, in many practical, and some theoretical fields. Yet, I notice how often what we were told were “iron clad rules” have turned upside down in the past 30 years…And each time the “experts” told us that was the truth…only to change it. —So that taught me to DO MY OWN RESEARCH, and hear, but don’t trust, so called experts. Most of them will club to death anyone who would challenge their theories, and their turf…Freely thinking, is the key.
YOU GUYS CANNOT FIND ANYTHING DEFINITIVE ON OBAMA AFTER ALMOST EIGHT YEARSOF DIGGING. IF THE COUP HADBEEN SUCCESSFUL WHAT WOULD OBAMA BE BLAIMED FOR? OH, TRUMP WOULD BE PRAISED. THE TWO BUSHES MADE WAR AGAINST ADVICE FROM COLIN POWELL WHO CAUTIONED ABOUT ENTERING A WAR FROM WHICH THERE IS NO CLEAR EXIT STRATEGY. NOW I HEAR RED NECKS SAYING OBAMA IS ONE OF THE FIRST PRESIDENT TO BE EMBROILED IN WAR FOR HIS TWO TERMS . WHAT NEXT HE PREVENTED CRUZ FROM ENDORSING TRUMP.
… obama rides the biggest lie support system ever created by any government.
On the contrary, we have so much that it’s not practical to list it all.
Nor should we have to list it all.
You liberal Obama-worshipers are adults, and as such you are responsible for educating yourselves; we should not have to spoon feed you like you are a babies..
The information is not hard to find. Just go to a source where people with integrity and courage are writing or speaking, and that would NOT be ABC, CBS, NBC or MSNBC, or most of the major newspapers in large cities
.
The Armenian genocide now can be look at how the Turkish government does things.
Turkey just cleaned house and apparently fired some of the people who were not doing there job.That is what what we need to do and should have done a long time ago Starting with Obama
I think you’ll find that Turkey will be put under head-lopping, stoning, mutilating, raping, crucifying, vivisecting, burning alive, drowning (most of these atrocities also perpetrated on children) Sharia law, and that MILLIONS will die, as they did under Hitler, Stalin and Mao, and as tens and hundreds of thousands died under Khomeini and Idi Amin, to name just a few of the butchers we’ve seen in the all too familiar stories of history.
This is not a “house cleaning” and firing of people not doing their jobs. In fact, many suspect that this coup was engineered by Erdogan himself, precisely to give him an excuse for mass murder.
President Obama is pretty much a victim of his own track record of incompetence. It’s time for a change and a leader that will actually lead.
It’s humorous that you bring up that Turkey is a NATO ally, yet the remainder of the article is clearly against Turkey.
If we are to intervene in Turkey according to Article 5 of NATO, then it would have to be in the form of intervening on the side of the government of Turkey, not t he opposition forces. To intervene on the side of the rebellion would be an attack by the United States against a fellow NATO member.
At this time, I see no reason for the United States to go to war against Turkey. This would be almost as bad as our invasion of Libya by the CIA(!) to depose Gadhafi or however he spelled his name; my computer does not recognize any of my spelling attempts, so I’ll just call him God-awful.
Attacking Turkey on the side of their rebels is not something the United States should do. In fact, it’s something the United States should NEVER do. We have been drawn into such stupid invasions that were said to promote democracy over the past 60 years. Very few have turned out well. I would prefer that we abandon the idea of establishing democracies and vassal states in other nations; it will reduce the moronic foreign policy mistakes that our State Department and CIA always find a way to commit.
Please do ot send me your publication any more. Kennedy was a traitor of Cuba after sending the cubans to fight in there he withdraw the support of the fighter and Cuba has been a Comunist contry since then. You do not know what you are talking about that subject.
Just a comment on the headline above, “Obama embarrasses America in Turkey”.
The illegal-in-chief has been an embarrassment to our Republic since before 2008!
AMEN!
Yes, I went thru some notes today: the only country Obama hasn’t crawled and sobbef apologies to seems to be Iceland!
While I agree that Erdogan is behaving like Stalin, I would strongly suggest that before you start throwing stones at glass houses in Turkey and other Middle Easter countries and invoking your founding fathers’ “God granted inalienable rights to all men and women to be free, and that we — the citizens of the United States of America — hold that truth to be self-evident”, that you first fully grant these “inalienable rights”, including basic human rights, to all the African Americans in the US who are being treated despicably! And you can start with your dysfunctional police force..
What is the statis of the U.S. H-bombs stored at the air station in Turkey??
Too bad the coup did not succeed. Erdogan is an unstable madman. Does no one recall his threats to attach Russia? What an idiot.
OTOH, the entire “plot” to oust Erdogan may have been a false flag event, too; based on results, it gave him the perfect opportunity to get rid of virtually all his detractors and/or clamp down on them, didn’t it?
Obama is a disgrace to his race and the american people
Its highly likely the President of Turkey was informed of the coming attempt to over throw.. by Obama.
Its highly likely, Obama wants the Muslim Brotherhood running Turkey, instead of being run by democratic principles.
The President of Turkey stated the Democracy was fine, till the time can to abandon it.. and it hardly seems possible Obama believes in Democracy either.
The negro don’t belong up there. And we have a few excruciating months left of him and who will be next?
” Give me Liberty or give me death” God bless Patric Henry and may God bless America .
I heard that the coup was fake and a setup by Ergodan himself.