A NATO country might also be able to reverse engineer the technology too. I have to wonder what else is going on with this deal?
The US is abusing NATO? What a laugh. No country is required to be a member of NATO. Why then do they stay in if they aren't benefiting somehow from being a member of NATO? Maybe you think NATO countries are just stupid?
If mission creep doesn't depend on time then I'd say this is a pretty damn slow mission creep. I'd prefer Turkey be booted from NATO. Hell, I wish the US would leave NATO. Let Europe defend themselves. Pull all troops out of foreign countries and bring them home now! And in the process of pulling out of NATO the US should stop all foreign aid as well. That's my humble opinion.
Not an arms dealer, but Turkey wants full naval and military control of the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean. They are disregarding the Lausanne Treaty and are claiming that all the Greek waters belongs to Turkey. The US is freaking out because Turkey is now drilling in waters that belong to Cyprus and have chased away any company that Cyprus has agreements with - that is with the exception of Exxon Mobil. I guess they consider the US too formidable an enemy. All this of course upsets the US since it's losing control of a strategic area, but Russia's the one to watch. For all of Putin's friendship with Erdogan, the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean is essential for Russia's survival. Erdogan is a mad man, but he can only do so much before everything blows up. Then there is the Montreaux Treaty over the Bosporus. Turkey has full control of the straits but under certain restrictions. Erdogan is building a canal to limit passageway through the straits, so who knows what he will do.
One site said that the S400 has electronic gathering capabilities and that the US does not want the F35s flying over the missile sites for that reason.
What a joke. The US is the only NATO country to ever invoke article 5. Because of it over 1000 non US NATO soldiers have died, what a joke. The US uses its NATO bases in Europe to wage war in Arabia and the Middle East, free of charge. Its drone operation for Africa, Araia and Middle East is in Ramstein, free of charge, what a joke.
Whatever the intention of the Bush mobsters at this time ... it had also to do with oil ... it's just sure like an Amen in a church! And it is fact that any of the official reasons to back this attack in 2003 were simply read! Neither supported Sadda Terror, nor was he any real danger for the region after his forces were castrated in 1991 ... and he also had no production facilities to make new WMD. And funny enough, around 5,000 chemical weapons found between 2004 and 2011 were kept secret by the US government. All were clearly put before 1991 ... so not one after the ban 1991! ... and not only secret, but also the incidents of US soldiers and Iraqis being injured by them were kept completely secret. There is even the serious suspicion in the room that they were given for secrecy reasons no proper medical treatment! 17 cases of US soldiers have been officially confirmed after research. Whether there is more, the Pentagon responds that it is subject to secrecy. Ridiculous... Funny thing is that most of the chemical weapons ammunition could no longer be verwedent because over 10 years old and miserable stored. So they were hard to use as evidence of Saddam's WMD ... and worse: At least some of the ammunition had been injured at the US soldiers, was apparently developed in the USA, manufactured in Europe and was bottled in Iraq in investments that Western and American companies had built. At that time, the Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein in the West was not yet considered an unscrupulous dictator, but as a partner. The fact that he used chemical weapons in the 1980s against Iran as well as against the Kurdish civilian population in northern Iraq was, despite thousands of dead internationally at that time, relatively low attention. It was not until 1991 that it was a big topic ... but only the poison gas attacks on the Kurds. The devastating poison gas attacks on Iranians were irrelevant ... were only evil mullah soldiers!
From my previous link: The Turkish operations also provide a boost to overseas sales. “Turkey has been trying to become an important player in arms export in the region,” military analyst Metin Gurcan said. “Turkey is becoming a new exporter that can provide much more effective, efficient, low-cost battle-tested, and let’s say less problematic solutions to exports.” This week Turkey confirmed the sale of 30 attack helicopters and four corvette warships to Pakistan.
Erdogan has higher ambitions than being an arms dealer. He has a messianic vision of himself, and believes he is the chosen one and will complete the conquest of 'Christendom'. Everything he says and does is towards that end.
Why leave, just pointing out that the US under the Idiot in Chief behaves like a spoiled child and expects everybody to shrug its childish tantrums of. The US is the only country of NATO, which invoked article 5 and to top it of has a " President " who questioned article 5.
I'm sure he does and he also knows there is potential profit in creating an MIC in Turkey. This is why Erdogan wants the technology from both the US and Russia. Lockheed-Martin says no to any of it's Patriot Defense technology and Russia promising only some of it's S400 defense system technology. Erdogan is not going to get everything he wants to create a Turkey MIC.
What the hell does Article 5 have to do with a NATO member wanting to purchase a Russia defense system? Will Turkey be using it to defend itself against Russia?
Erdogan never stopped sending illegal migrants to Europe via the Greek islands. He started way before the Syrian refugees crises. It was blackmail to force Europe to give them visa free entrance. If Greece tried to send them back, they would be found floating in the water. As for the refugees, 4,000 were coming a day, and the traffickers were charging $10,000 thousand a head to cross the Aegean. You do the math. They were probably splitting the profit with the Turkish coast guard. The distance to the islands is not far, but the waters are treacherous. I've had my experience there. The trafickers would pack the rubber rafts with 50 people and the motor would sometimes die. If they were in Greek waters fine, they could be saved, but if in Turkish waters that was the end of them. They would watch with binoculars and could see the Turkish coast guards at time over turning boats. They might have been Kurds, or maybe they weren't paid enough. Who knows? The morgue on Lesvos was packed and they say the most pathetic thing were the children. Some merchants would sell them life jackets filled with foam so when the boats overturned the children would sink and drown. In the meantime Turkey was sending with the refugees migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. and giving them Syrian passports. Now they are in refugee camps on the islands and going crazy because they can't leave.
I'm not a neocon......besides I never left...I'm just really screwed up trying to make sense of it all... this is now my standard...my level 1 otherwise referred to as level **** you
It is no secret that the U.S. is the villain in every part of the world, and it is the biggest threat to world peace in our time. Now maybe I am susceptible to, "the enemy of the people is my friend" .... and maybe too I am more than eager to believe that Putin and the Russians are today's good guys. Yes, maybe I am. And maybe I am willing to close one eye against the danger of my eagerness. However, the U.S. is not making any friends, rather it is threatening the world with their F-ing "with us or against us" rhetoric ... while Russia is professing to make friends by good deeds. Oh dear - what side ought I choose: The one that is offering a hand in friendship or the one who's is perpetually trying to intimidate me? Tough choice, huh?