So easy a caveman could do it

Weekly Standard's Matthew Continetti on Turkey's role in the Gaza flotilla fiasco --

The trend that few have noticed is that these elements are pulling Turkey out of the Western alliance structure and toward the Middle East. The break began in 2003 when the Turks denied the U.S. Fourth Infantry the ability to invade Iraq from the north.

So the breakdown in relations with Turkey began over the invasion of Iraq.

Interesting.

Later --

Since 2005, Americans have been worrying about Iran's ambitions for regional hegemony. Maybe it's time we started worrying about Turkey's regional ambitions as well. The Turks ruled the region from 1453 to 1922, after all. A renascence (sic) of Turkish power, in an Islamist guise, would cause all sorts of troubles no one can anticipate.

So after nearly 9 years of the Global War on Terror, a conservative begins to wonder if the restoration of the Caliphate could be closer than we think.

Somewhere in Afghanistan, a man laughs.

UPDATE: Bonus tunnel vision from Robert Pollock in the Wall Street Journal --

What's more, Turks remain blind to their manifest hypocrisies. Ask how they would feel if other countries arranged an "aid" convoy (akin to the Gaza flotilla) for their own Kurdish minority and you'll be met with dumb stares.

Another country did organize an aid convoy for the Kurdish minority in Turkey. It's called Kurdistan i.e. the effectively autonomous Kurdish provincial government in Northern Iraq.

It would be nice if conservatives woke up to the link between the US invasion of Iraq and the slow disintegration of traditional US Middle East policy, but it's not likely.