Dimity Orlov: 2022: The Year the US lost All Respect

A couple of days ago there was a terrorist attack in the center of İstanbul, Turkey. The details are not important and I wouldn’t tell you about them in any case because I am not a media whore who empowers terrorists by giving them free advertising. What’s important is Turkey’s official reaction to American official condolences that were offered after the fact: Turkey refused to accept them. Head of Turkey’s foreign ministry Süleyman Soylu expressed this plainly enough: “We do not accept condolences of the American embassy.”

He said some other interesting things too. Turkey knows where the attack was coordinated: in the US. Who carried it out doesn’t matter; those were just “pawns.” And he characterized the US behavior in this matter as “the return of the murderer to the scene of the crime.” Is this respectful or polite? Yes it is; this is perfectly proper and diplomatic. But is this how one treats one’s lord and master? No, not at all! The inevitable conclusion is that the US no longer matters and you can call US officials terrorists and spit in their face in public. They’ll just take out their handkerchiefs, daintily dab the spittle that’s dripping off their faces and pretend that none of this has actually happened. Meanwhile, their pet journos will sheepishly look the other way.

And so most Americans won’t even know of this. And if told of this, most Americans would think, “Hmm. Turkey… oh yeah, Thanksgiving is just a week away, isn’t it? Delicious, juicy turkey…” and then just hum to themselves Homer Simpson-like, lost in an anticipatory tryptophan daze, thinking about stuffing and cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie and big, sweaty men running around and colliding on a field, ruining their knees and giving each other concussions, forever unable to agree on who owns a certain oblong leather object…

Perhaps it’s better not to tell them about this. There is an old saying: “Don’t pick up a happy baby.” Or a miserable baby. Or any sort of baby, unless it’s yours. And this is definitely not my baby. But since you are reading this, I’ll tell you.