criminal President he is. If there is a destabilized middle east just south of Russia, people will back the asshole who has the biggest balls - him. He's now a 'war president' as Dubya would say.

Erdoğan is a much of a nationalist as Putin. He won't stand for Russian warplanes in his airspace any more than Putin would stand for Turkish warplanes in Russian airspace.

They may not be the best trained, or the most motivated, but they're in place, in uniform and ready to rumble. I'm betting they'd get motivated if the shit hit the fan, too. That whole Kemal Attaturk vibe kicks in, along with nationalist pride. Putie best watch his six. He doesn't want to light off any fuses.

I dunno though, sometimes I wonder if syphilis isn't eating that guy's brain or something--he acts like such an asshole, so often!

Same reason Hitler and Mussolini never invaded Switzerland. The Swiss weren't overly hostile to them anyway, but they made it clear that they were staying neutral no matter what, would fight if attacked, and they had their own military installations all through the Alps. It would have been like trying to chase a mechanized Taliban all through the Hindu Kush. A friend of mine from the Geneva area was in mandatory military service until he was 40 or so, and he hated the reservist duty he had to do every year up in the mountains. He was cold, got colds, and was generally miserable for two weeks, but he told me they had their installations literally everywhere and that no invader in his right mind would ever try to dislodge them. I can imagine that the Turks have similar installations in their own vast mountain ranges. It wouldn't surprise me to hear that Putin is secretly trying to get cozy with the Turkish Kurds for this reason, but seeing as how there are Kurds in Syria, too, they would probably side with the Turks in case of an invasion of their home territory. The fact that Turkey is also part of NATO might also make Putin think twice. If the Russians attacked, we either respond or declare NATO defunct on the spot. Not a pleasant choice for an American president, but not a bet I'd want to take as Russia's dictator, either.

As for the Kurds, there are elements in Turkey who remain dissatisfied with the government, and Poot might be able to find troublemakers in the PKK elements, though the moderate Kurds have been getting a better deal in recent years and the persecution has abated considerably.

Turkey has been a pretty good NATO ally down the years, too. That point is salient.

We would 'owe' them, make no mistake.

A lot of Turks are pointing fingers at their own government.

http://www.todayszaman.com/national_intellectuals-underline-timing-of-attack-and-lack-of-intelligence_401157.html

And

http://www.straitstimes.com/world/middle-east/thousands-protest-in-istanbul-after-ankara-attack

Thousands Protest in Istanbul After Ankara Attack

ISTANBUL (AFP) - Thousands of people on Saturday marched down Istanbul's main central avenue to protest the twin suspected suicide bombing in the Turkish capital Ankara that killed at least 86 people.

The estimated crowd of 10,000 filled Istiklal Street in central Istanbul, with police maintaining a heavy presence but not intervening, an AFP photographer said.

Some carried placards reading "the state is a killer" and "we know the murderers", echoing allegations of state responsibility made in the aftermath of the attack but denied by the government.

Protests were also taking place in several other Turkish cities including Izmir on the Aegean and southeastern cities such as Batman and Diyarbakir, the Dogan news agency reported.

A protest earlier in Diyarbakir had ended with police using tear gas to disperse protesters.

There is a great deal of tension between the Armed Forces and the civilian arm of the government (and that's just for starters). The civilians "won" a while back, and a lot of the old generals who liked the Attaturk ways were flung, against their will, into retirement to be replaced by more complacent seniors.

Then, there's the fundy-moderate tension on the civilian side of things.

It's not a united voice, "the state." Probably won't be for a while.

That would be a detail I never knew. Gotta check it out, now that you mention it!

about the only thing they were good at was surrendering en masse.

The Iraqis had way better equipment, the Persians had cannon fodder. There are so many widows and mothers of martyrs over there, it's incomprehensible. So many children who grew up without a father.

Now, the Persians have the more disciplined force of the two. Iraq has a bunch of guys who just aren't that into it from a nationalistic standpoint--they're back to regional-tribal paradigms.

...

For the win.

Erdogan tried them in aviation until he realized that was a colossal and tragic mistake. "As God is my witness I thought turkeys could fly!"

bags of wet cement!

The US is certainly paying close attention to Russian sorties, I'd expect the US to share that with an ally.