Last Call in Brussels

Why should NATO continue to let Turkey hold it hostage?

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during a press conference at the June 2022 NATO summit in Madrid. (Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Sweden and Finland want to be in NATO. NATO mostly likes this idea, but Turkey is standing in the way. Which raises the obvious question:

Why is Turkey still in NATO? 

In a very diplomatic column for Bloomberg, former NATO Supreme Commander James Stavridis writes:

Sweden has a high-tech military and produces the fifth-generation Saab Gripen fighters, which I was thrilled to have in our operations over Libya. The Finns, a nation of only five million, can put hundreds of thousands of well-trained and fully equipped ground combat forces in the field in a matter of weeks. We want them on our team.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Gwmanx

    Not specific to this column, re Words About Words. How about this verb? Indeed, the entire sentence.
    “[W]hat happened at the Capitol was also affected by law enforcement failures to operationalize the ample intelligence that was present before Jan. 6, about the threats of violence.”

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    Ben Connelly

    “ My advice to them was (and is) that they should learn to write sentences in which the words they write, in the order they are written, mean exactly what they wish to say.”

    Great advice!

    I never knew what the Domesday book actually was.

    Also, I’d never read that piece by Jay. Thanks for linking it! Maybe he’ll write for TD someday too.

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  3. Kgfroehle

    I've been thinking about this over the past few days (edit : past day; when retired, it all conflates). Well, the last paragraph that is. No, the last sentence.

    Those souls who walked into the Colosseum. Were they "comforted" as the lions charged? Depends on what "comfort" means. Maybe KDW can do The Language thing on that.

    Thanks for the brief on Pisarski. One of many Believers who lived it. Far better than I.

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    John A Johnson

    Thanks for mentioning Coast (Ronald, English born economist who taught first at Virginia and then at University of Chicago Law School), in whose ideas even the Clintons, I believe, found some very practical and useful merit

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    Jim McC

    Based on everything I know about you, Kevin, I assume you meant James Buchanan (the economist), not Pat, but you might want to clarify for a wonky conservative audience that might not have a great deal of exposure to public choice theory....

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    1. Kevin Williamson

      Thanks. I assume Dispatch readers know.

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      1. GenZConservative

        I learned today. We are all born knowing nothing, alas.

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      2. Marc Whipple

        I did not know who Buchanan was in your list of great thinkers, but my confidence that it was not Pat Buchanan cannot be overstated. 😁

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        Jim McC

        Probably the most likely audience to get it this side of Cato, but just in case, this comment covers it.

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    Pboyd

    I don't know your situation, but I must admit I was a bit flummoxed by your "But, in any case, I am not eager to sit in judgment over anybody—I just went to some trouble to get out of jury duty. I may be in the gloom business, but I am not in the doom business. "

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  7. BadgerBill

    Okay, laugh out loud funny, Kevin. Cletus the Slack Jawed Yokel, er…, Marjorie Taylor Greene. Oh, so, so good. Burn!

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    Andy Napoli

    You do realize that Belarus and Russia are considered European countries, right?

    In what universe is Ukraine "the most corrupt country in Europe"? According to whom? By what criteria?

    Transparency International ranks Ukraine (122/180) as less corrupt than Russia (136/180).

    https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2021

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      WilliamJ

      So #2 most corrupt in Europe - not sure it really helps your case that much, though it would seem you are technically correct.

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    Citizen60

    Great read, thanks.

    NATO should evict Turkey, or put them on a “non-active” status. Eagerly welcome the Swedes and Finns.
    Turkey would never show up for a nation who invoked Article 5 unless Erdogan thought that nation would be of use to him personally. Turkey is no longer a democracy, per friends’ descriptions of 20 years ago and now.

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  10. John Geffel

    “Put up and shut up—stop with the ridiculous Fox News posturing and do your damned jobs.”

    Thank you, my thoughts exactly!

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