Indeed, after all its not been a strategic policy since 1950 to keep the Soviets, er Russians out of the ME or anything. Its not like thats why Turkey is in NATO in the first place.
You have to hand it to Putin. He did what no premier could do. Of course Khruschev faced Eisenhower, Breznev faced Nixon. Putin faced well never mind.
''Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity.'' ―Albert Einstein
Full disclosure per the Pistol-Forum CoC: I am the author of Quantitative Ammunition Selection.
The seventy year old club of wisdom at lunch decided that if we were the leaders of Israel, Japan and South Korea we would start producing all the nuclear weapons we could. That is the only thing that has deterrent value in today's threat environment.
Certainly, not trust the USA to come to our rescue or even make a deterrent threat.
Taiwan is toast, just wait a few years. They should make a stronger deal but one like one that Hong Kong had for some kind of semi-autonomy. Might not be going well there now but you get the idea.
Personally, I'd kiss Turkey off. Needing to control the Bosphorus to prevent the Russian fleet from threatening the Suez canal is so old school British Empire. Let them be a Russian vassal state.
Turkey Holds 50 U.S. Nukes Hostage At Air Base according to Fox News.
Will Trump be more concerned by this or the prospect of Trump Towers Instanbul getting nationalized?
S. Korea had a nuke program but we pressured them and shut it down. The Japanese Constitution forbids such but times are changing. They are building up their first aircraft carriers with F-35s. They are originally helicopter carriers (wink, wink) but a size that allowed conversion. They supposedly have from their reactors enough plutonium for many nukes (wink, wink) and could field a weapon in 6 months. Abe wants to explicitly change their constitution to allow continued build up.
So my point is that with American alliances meaning nothing under Trump - I would max out my country's capabilities.