Steven the proof of the pudding is in the eating your bias is clear for everyone.
Your comment about what I said was taken out of context...and you know it or should.

My last post was a fun thing pointing out the spin in yours.

Turkey cannot possibly challenge Iran for leadership of Islam, quite frankly, they never really controlled Persia to begin with and they are Sunni, not Shia. They may be setting up to challenge the Saudi's for leadership of the Sunni Moslems (there is a fair bit of nasty history there, that is for sure). After all Faisal and the rest were behind the Arab revolt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Revolt) under that skinny poof...

You know the one where they supposedly took Damascus? Trouble being of course that the Light Horse had already taken it, but hey, it made a good story. Turkey stripping the Saudi's - the Absolute sworn enemies of the followers of Ali - of the leadership of the Sunni Arabs, that would be high on the agenda for the Persian/Iranian leaders...

I mean, this time last Century, that is EXACTLY the way things stood. But no, I do not believe that Turkey could honestly harbor designs on Iran & the Shi'ites, they really wouldn't have a hope.

Custard,

Notwithstanding the fact that Iran is shia while Turkey and most of the "Ummah" is Sunni, Iran did try to become the leader of the Muslim world. It's influence has waned lately.

Turkey is quite capable of cooperating with Iran when it suits both parties. Were Foxy to peruse her favourite Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, she could read about an example of such cooperation:

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-worried-by-new-turkey-intelligence-chief-s-defense-of-iran-1.294568

However Turkey, with a dynamic economy not dependent on oil sees itself as the emerging leader of the Muslim world.

Once the AKP took power in Istanbul most Israeli officials realised the alliance with Turkey was on borrowed time. It has now ended.

The Americans are playing a game with Turkey. They are using it as a wedge between the Muslim world and the EU. It works like this.

--The Turks purportedly want EU membership. At one time I think that was genuine policy. I doubt that is the case now. But the AKP find it useful to pretend that is still the goal.

--Most Europeans are strongly opposed to Turkish membership which would allow 80 million Muslim Turks to live anywhere within the EU. (They don't mind Turkey as a trading partner. It's the movement of Muslim Turks into their countries that spooks them)

--The Americans on the other hand keep urging the EU to admit Turkey.

This is wedge politics on a global scale. It allows America to appear to be the "good guys" while the Europeans are cast in the role of bigots.

Israelis understand that Turkey is much more important to them than Israel.

Dear Steven,

As always,
"Wise Words,"
from a
"Wise Man!"

I am not saying for a minute that Iran and Turkey are incapable of working together, the facts state otherwise. I am saying that Iran would be well served if Turkey, being a friendly state, took control of the Sunni moslems back from the Saudi's. Thus, the current tension between Sunni & Shia could be resolved amicably (until one or the other cuts the others throat).

The Persian Empire coexisted with the Turkish Empire, not always in a good way, but they managed. The Iranians and the Al Sauds cannot get along AT ALL. So in order to avoid a potentially troublesome situation, Turkey taking back control of the Sunni Moslems would solve one MAJOR problem for Iran (the chief Mullah of Turkey called for a jihad during the first world war, which was ignored by the Hashemites and the Al Saud's, who rebelled against Turkey). The Hashemites lost control of the Holy Places (instead they got Jordan) and the Al Saud's got Saudi Arabia.

That was last century, Iran may well want to wind back the clock and arrange things so there is 1 jihad for the followers of both Mohammed and Mo & Ali. Turkey would have to do something pretty extreme to take control of the Arabs back, but that is what they appear to be working on, they have their nose well out of joint because of the knock back by the EU.

That is just conjecture however, neither want the Kurds to spark up, that is why they are undertaking joint operations against them (the Kurds under Saladin actually started the Turkish Empire, a resurgent Kurdistan is not in their interest).

Given what I know to be the "job" of Pine Gap, I am seriously concerned that the targeting information for the Turkish/Iranian Strikes on Kurdistan may have been from there. There's a question for the Government.