Lebanon: America has become the butt of jokes

[ekrem]

@High_Gravity

You have sparse knowledge in the topics you are participating in. Especially in foreign policy topics. The provinces the Turkish reconstruction teams are, are zones from France, Italy and Turkey.

You just make claims that lack serious knowledge and when something doesn't proceed the way you like, you become childish.

 

[ekrem]

(...)

If Turkey wants to be a serious playa in the middle east, a la Lebanon, then maybe we should let them run the circus in A-stan.

The Afghan president acknowledged that there have been discussions about Taliban officials setting up somewhere in Turkey "in order to facilitate reconciliation and integration," according to the Turkish news agency Anadolu.
"If Turkey can be kind to provide such a venue we, the government of Afghanistan will be pleased and happy to see that facilitation (in) Turkey," said Karzai.
Report: Karzai open to Taliban setting up office in Turkey - CNN.com

Probably something we will see happening in 2011.

 

[ekrem]

(...)
"How is Turkey going to counter a nuclear-armed Iran."
(...)

Who says, that we want to counter Iran?
If we do certain things in the region, then primarily due to OUR economical and political interests.

Why should we divert our resources into 'countering' Iran?
Iran isn't in competition with us in the regions we're trying to broaden our influence.
No one in Turkey will come up with the idea to dispute the region South of Baghdad from Iran's influence zone.

North of Baghdad we have secured the Kurdish Areas, and in Mossul-Province we have founded and financed al-Hudba movement according to WikiLeaks, which has won in the elections on regional level.
That's all we want in Iraq in geo-political terms. Further economical deals in S.Iraq are simply bonus:


Resurgent Turkey Flexes Its Muscles Around Iraq

A Turkey as resurgent as at any time since its Ottoman glory is projecting influence through a turbulent Iraq, from the boomtowns of the north to the oil fields near southernmost Basra, in a show of power that illustrates its growing heft across an Arab world long suspicious of it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/05/world/middleeast/05turkey.html?pagewanted=all

 

[ekrem]

Iran has a better Military than any other country in the Middle East right now besides Israel and they are close to getting nukes which will make them feared in the region, how is Turkey going to counter that? they goin after Nukes too?

George Friedman, CEO of Stratfor:
"It would not be a contest".
When he gave the Interview, Turkey was17th biggest economy, in 2011 we're 16th.

 

[ekrem]

Al Jazeera Forum gathering intellectuals in Doha, Qatar.

Turkey, Turkey, Turkey...That was the refrain

A Crisis of Self-Confidence in the Arab World - foreignpolicy.com

 

[ekrem]

"Soft power" doesn't do jackshit(...)

"Soft Power" contributes to de-escalation and is offering another door for small countries entrenched in the status-quo to walk through.
Turkey is exporting schools, hospitals, TV series, faciliates business deals and infra-structural integration.
Everyone in the Muslim world wants to be friends with Turkey. And Turkey wants to be friends with them also.


Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center, (...) described Turkey as "the only country in the Middle East actually pointing toward the future."
That is what is known as soft power.
James Traub | Foreign Policy

 

[ekrem]

LMAO! Turkish women are very hairy though!

EDIT. Was a bit to harsh in retro-perspective.

 

[Ropey]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/19/world/middleeast/19lebanon.html?_r=1

Only a liar would twist a quote the way you did. The article says " American diplomacy has become the butt of jokes here"

Pretty much. But you're not saying anything that is not known here.

Lebanon, once the Jewel of the middle east is now...

Might as well let the Turks in there. They can't screw it up worse than the Syrians and Iran. Oh, that's their bosom buddies.

Well, as I said, Lebanon the . . .

 

[007]

So Turkey has more influence than American in Lebanon? whoop dee fuckin doo, you can have that shit hole. America already tried in Lebanon and if you think Turkey will do any better, good luck. Have fun with Hezbollah.

I never said Turkey has more influence in Lebanon then USA.

It's *THAN* not 'then' moron, and I'd say America can be whatever kind of joke to those rag headed killers they want us to be. It doesn't really matter. When their oil runs out they're fucked, and I know who will be laughing then, and it won't be them.

 

[ekrem]

It's *THAN* not 'then' moron, and I'd say America can be whatever kind of joke to those rag headed killers they want us to be. It doesn't really matter. When their oil runs out they're fucked, and I know who will be laughing then, and it won't be them.

But Lebanon has no oil, and oil in Mid-East in general won't diminish.
It's a game to achieve certain market-prices by limiting production.
Then there is oil-shale in Mid-East which is currently not being processed, why invest in infrastructure and technology to extract oil from shale when you already have infrastructure in conventional oil-production?
Amortization.

There is enough oil in Mid-East, would oil really be running out, those countries would invest more in exploration. Most of the oil deposits in Mid-East were found a long long time ago. A big ($) rush to explore new oil fields with 21st century methods would raise oil reserves in this region.
The only countries in this region searching really for new oil deposits are countries which have small reserves (Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey). In case of Lebanon and Syria, both lack money for exploration.

 

[hipeter924]

It's *THAN* not 'then' moron, and I'd say America can be whatever kind of joke to those rag headed killers they want us to be. It doesn't really matter. When their oil runs out they're fucked, and I know who will be laughing then, and it won't be them.

But Lebanon has no oil, and oil in Mid-East in general won't diminish.
It's a game to achieve certain market-prices by limiting production.
Then there is oil-shale in Mid-East which is currently not being processed, why invest in infrastructure and technology to extract oil from shale when you already have infrastructure in conventional oil-production?
Amortization.

There is enough oil in Mid-East, would oil really be running out, those countries would invest more in exploration. Most of the oil deposits in Mid-East were found a long long time ago. A big ($) rush to explore new oil fields with 21st century methods would raise oil reserves in this region.
The only countries in this region searching really for new oil deposits are countries which have small reserves (Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey). In case of Lebanon and Syria, both lack money for exploration.

I guess, but overall not everyone can be employed in the oil sector, so you really have to find something else for people to do, maybe a different sector here (agriculture) but the same principle applies as if you just focus on one sector you have plenty of money (among those who work in that sector) but high unemployment and poverty among everyone else, thus it's no wonder that the UAE,etc are trying to build up tourism and IT to escape the trap of focusing just on one area of the economy at the expense of the others.

PS: Another problem is that many oil companies hire foreign contractors, thus cutting the locals out, as well as keeping the wealth in the hands of a elite group (the foreign corporations and the government), as for the US situation it focused on agriculture but it's food is over-processed (genetically modified, filled with additives and chemicals) in a world where organic food is more profitable and where over-processed foods are unpopular for export and banned as unsafe in many countries, and industry (which is being outsourced gradually all overseas), as well as mining and trade (US has a trade deficit now as far as I know), stock trading and banking (we all know how that turned out).

 

[High_Gravity]

@High_Gravity

You have sparse knowledge in the topics you are participating in. Especially in foreign policy topics. The provinces the Turkish reconstruction teams are, are zones from France, Italy and Turkey.

You just make claims that lack serious knowledge and when something doesn't proceed the way you like, you become childish.

Let the US Troops pull out of Afghanistan and we'll see how childish the Turks look when the Taliban are kicking their asses. The only reason Turkey has done anything in Afghanistan is because they have been behind the scenes while the US, England a few others do the actual fighting.

 

[High_Gravity]

"Soft power" doesn't do jackshit(...)

"Soft Power" contributes to de-escalation and is offering another door for small countries entrenched in the status-quo to walk through.
Turkey is exporting schools, hospitals, TV series, faciliates business deals and infra-structural integration.
Everyone in the Muslim world wants to be friends with Turkey. And Turkey wants to be friends with them also.


Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center, (...) described Turkey as "the only country in the Middle East actually pointing toward the future."
That is what is known as soft power.
James Traub | Foreign Policy

Soft power doesn't work in places like Afghanistan without muscle to back it up, how effective would Turkey be in Afghanistan without the US doing all the heavy lifting?

 

[High_Gravity]

LMAO! Turkish women are very hairy though!

EDIT. Was a bit to harsh in retro-perspective.

What did you say?

 

[Ropey]

With minutes to spare, Wednesday night, Jan. 19, Hizballah called off its plan to hold to siege UN buildings in Beirut and their staff of 1,000, as a show of strength in the face of the threatened UN Hariri tribunal's indictment of its high officials for the Hariri assassination six years ago. debkafile's military sources report.
The sites targeted were the offices of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia which Hizballah militiamen were ordered to seal against ingress and egress, while its armed units were to encircle and pin down UNIFIL patrols in South Lebanon and cut off isolated UN outposts and lookout posts.

The registrar also stated Tuesday: "The pretrial judge is very keen to move the process forward as fast as possible."
This means that Fransen will make an effort to hand down his decision on the indictments within 6-10 weeks, much earlier than the several months originally reported. The court realizes that the longer the court process, the deeper Lebanon will sink into crisis.

Von Hebel also referred to the joint effort Syrian president Bashar Assad, Turkish premier Recep Erdogan and the Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani were making in Beirut for a compromise that would free the Lebanese government of its commitment to honor the international tribunal's warrants and contribute to its funding. The registrar said: "We know for sure it is not easy to get accused persons arrested. The problem with international tribunals is that they do not have a police force. We are dependent on the cooperation of states."
He then remarked: "The tribunal's budget is $65.7 million for 2011 should not be affected by the collapse of the Lebanese government which is obliged to pay 49 percent. The obligation is for the state, not a government."

Obama proposes in abstentia trial for Hizballah

Hizballah's eleventh-hour pullback from siege of UN sites and troops

 

[High_Gravity]

What the fuck is the UN doing in Lebanon, shining Hezollahs shoes and washing their bed sheets? what a joke, they might as well leave before Hezbollah takes over their buildings and embarasses them by chasing them out in the streets naked.

 

[ekrem]

Turkey, Qatar halt efforts to mediate Lebanon crisis
"Because of some reservations," to proposed solutions, "they have decided to halt their efforts in Lebanon at this time and leave Beirut to consult with their leaderships," the statement said.
Turkey, Qatar halt efforts to mediate Lebanon crisis

Russian FM was visiting on Thursday so the Foreign MInister had to return, and Friday+Saturday are the nuclear talks about Iran in Istanbul.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov:
" (...) there's not only one topic for this meeting, the lifting of sanctions on Iran must also be on the agenda,"
Istanbul meet should cover lifting Iran sanctions: Lavrov — EU business news - EUbusiness.com

 

[ekrem]

Let the US Troops pull out of Afghanistan and we'll see how childish the Turks look when the Taliban are kicking their asses. The only reason Turkey has done anything in Afghanistan is because they have been behind the scenes while the US, England a few others do the actual fighting.

Turkish troops don't have authority for counterinsurgency or counterterrorist operations. We are there for the Afghan people, not for the Taliban.

Turkey was instrumental in establishing the military academy, medical school, Kabul University and its faculty of political sciences, the music conservatory, and the public health service of Afghanistan.
(...)
Unlike many other members of the international community, Turkey did not neglect Afghanistan in the years preceding 9/11 but was silently active.

How Turkey can help NATO in Afghanistan - CSMonitor.com

The Afghans know, that Turks are no invaders but are there for reconstruction-work and development-aid.

Wouldn't the USA have invaded Afghanistan, Turkey would still be doing development-aid in Afghanistan.
So your claim, that without USA Turkey couldn't do a shit in Afghanistan is false. Although after 2001 Turkish aid has risen significantly, but that is more connected to the "Wirtschaftswunder" in Turkey.

 

[High_Gravity]

Let the US Troops pull out of Afghanistan and we'll see how childish the Turks look when the Taliban are kicking their asses. The only reason Turkey has done anything in Afghanistan is because they have been behind the scenes while the US, England a few others do the actual fighting.

Turkish troops don't have authority for counterinsurgency or counterterrorist operations. We are there for the Afghan people, not for the Taliban.

Turkey was instrumental in establishing the military academy, medical school, Kabul University and its faculty of political sciences, the music conservatory, and the public health service of Afghanistan.
(...)
Unlike many other members of the international community, Turkey did not neglect Afghanistan in the years preceding 9/11 but was silently active.

How Turkey can help NATO in Afghanistan - CSMonitor.com

The Afghans know, that Turks are no invaders but are there for reconstruction-work and development-aid.

Wouldn't the USA have invaded Afghanistan, Turkey would still be doing development-aid in Afghanistan.
So your claim, that without USA Turkey couldn't do a shit in Afghanistan is false. Although after 2001 Turkish aid has risen significantly, but that is more connected to the "Wirtschaftswunder" in Turkey.

I understand that but the Taliban target aid projects all the time, if the US were to pull its troops out of Afghanistan today the Taliban would burn all these Turkish projects to the ground, the Taliban don't necessarily care about what the Afghan people want. Tell me how many aid projects Turkey had in Afghanistan before the US went there?

 

[High_Gravity]

Why can't the Turks admit what happened with the Armenians, grow the fuck up, apologize and move on? Germany has no problem admitting its mistakes in the holocaust.