THE HYPOCRISY FLOWS – AT 8:30 A.M. ET:   How many Syrians have been murdered by their government in the last year?  I believe the number is approaching 25,000, according to many sources.   And yet, nothing is done.

But let there be some brief tension between the Syrian regime and Turkey, and the West starts wringing its hands.  Why?  Well, ostensibly, it's because Turkey is a member of NATO, although an odd member to be sure.  Unlike other NATO members, it's Islamist, cozies up to Iran, is actively anti-Israel, and, by the way, throws journalists and dissidents in prison.

NATO trusts the Turkish government with classified information.

At one time Turkey was a model of a Muslim country with a secular government.  That has changed in the last ten years under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a hard-line Islamist, whose wife wears the full burka.  President Obama has described Erdogan as his closest friend in the region.  Not the leader of Jordan or Israel, two American allies, but the leader of Islamist Turkey.  Nice, huh?

Now NATO is threatening to intervene in the Turkish-Syrian dispute, which would suck us in.  From Reuters:

The head of NATO said on Tuesday the military alliance has plans in place to defend Turkey against attack from Syria if needed.

"We have all necessary plans in place to protect and defend Turkey if necessary," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters before a meeting of the alliance's defense ministers in Brussels.

Following Syrian gunfire and shelling, NATO ambassadors threw their support behind Turkey in an emergency meeting last week. Turkish forces have retaliated against the bombardment from northern Syria, where President Bashar Assad's forces are battling rebels.

Turkey's armed forces have bolstered their presence along the 900-km (560-mile) border with Syria in recent days and have been responding in kind to gunfire and shelling spilling across from the south, where Assad's forces have been battling rebels who control swathes of territory.

COMMENT:  What's this?   The murder of 25,000 Syrians is greeted with a yawn, but a minor border clash puts NATO on Zoloft?  Why do I sense the hand of President Obama here?  Obama would like nothing better than to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with an Islamist leader who could be sold as a "friend of the West," which Erdogan definitely is not. 

I'd watch this very carefully, especially as our election approaches.  Could the October surprise come when Obama rushes American forces to "defend" a "NATO ally," which happens to be an Islamist country?  I stress that I'm speculating, but I wouldn't put anything past this president. 

October 9,  2012