After the failed coup attempt in Turkey yesterday, some of you out there might be wondering,

“Just who is this leader of the Turkish Government, that the military attempted a coup against?

I’m glad you asked.

The following biographical information comes courtesy of BBC News…

Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party enjoys a fierce and loyal support among Turkey’s conservative, Muslim base, while outside the country outrage grows over his silencing of critics, often by force.

Turkish journalists have been investigated and put on trial, foreign journalists have been harassed and deported. Last month, police raided Turkey’s biggest newspaper, Zaman. Its staff emerged bloodied and cowed.

Zaman’s last independent edition said Turkey’s press had seen one of its “darkest days”. Its first edition under state control carried unabashedly pro-government articles.

And Mr Erdogan’s authoritarian approach is not confined to Turkey’s borders. His bodyguards harassed reporters in the US, and a German satirist is under investigation in his home country for offending the Turkish president on TV.

…Born in 1954, Recep Tayyip Erdogan grew up the son of a coastguard, on Turkey’s Black Sea coast.

When he was 13, his father decided to move to Istanbul, hoping to give his five children a better upbringing.

As a teenager, the young Erdogan sold lemonade and sesame buns on the streets of Istanbul’s rougher districts to earn extra cash.

He attended an Islamic school before obtaining a degree in management from Istanbul’s Marmara University – and playing professional football.

While at university, he met Necmettin Erbakan – who went on to become the country’s first Islamist prime minister – and entered Turkey’s Islamist movement.

In 1994, Mr Erdogan became the mayor of Istanbul. Even his critics admit that he did a good job, making Istanbul cleaner and greener.

But in 1999 he spent four months in jail after a conviction for religious incitement.

He had publicly read a nationalist poem including the lines: “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers.”

In 2001 Mr Erdogan launched the AKP with allies, having broken away from the Virtue Party, which had been banned.

His rise to power was complete when the AKP won a landslide election victory in 2002 and he became prime minister.

…He spent 11 years as Turkey’s prime minister before becoming the country’s first directly-elected president in August 2014 – a supposedly ceremonial role.

In June 2015 the AK Party suffered a dip in the polls and failed to form a coalition. But a snap election in November, after Turkey’s worst suicide bombing prompted Mr Erdogan to escalate his war against the PKK, gave the party a convincing majority.

…In the decades before the AKP’s rise to power, the military had intervened in politics four times to curb Islamist influence.

In 2013 Mr Erdogan triumphed over the military elite when senior officers were among 17 people jailed for life, convicted of plotting to overthrow the AKP in what was known as the “Ergenekon” case.

Hundreds of other officers were also put on trial, along with journalists and secularist politicians, in that investigation and a similar one called the “Operation Sledgehammer” case.

When more than 200 officers were detained in the Sledgehammer investigation in 2011, the heads of Turkey’s army, navy and air force resigned in protest.

Critics accused Mr Erdogan of using the judiciary to silence political opponents, and there were many allegations of trumped-up charges.

But his supporters applauded him for taking on previously untouchable establishment figures, who saw themselves as guardians of the state created by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Mr Erdogan also unleashed the power of the state to crush mass protests in Istanbul in June 2013, focused on Gezi Park, a green area earmarked for a huge building project.

The protests spread to other cities, swelled by many secularist Turks suspicious of the AKP’s Islamist leanings.

A major corruption scandal battered his government in December 2013, involving numerous arrests, including the sons of three cabinet ministers.

Mr Erdogan raged against “plotters” based outside Turkey, condemning supporters of Fethullah Gulen. He also lashed out against social media, vowing to “wipe out” Twitter.

He has a combative charisma that many Turks in the teeming cities and small Anatolian towns love.

But his reputation took a hit in May 2014 when he reacted coldly to a mine disaster in Soma, western Turkey, which killed 301 people.

Mr Erdogan has denied wanting to impose Islamic values, saying he is committed to secularism. But he supports Turks’ right to express their religious beliefs more openly.

That message goes down particularly well in rural and small-town Anatolia – the AKP’s traditional heartland. Some supporters nicknamed him “Sultan” – harking back to the Ottoman Empire.

In October 2013 Turkey lifted rules banning women from wearing headscarves in the country’s state institutions – with the exception of the judiciary, military and police – ending a decades-old restriction.

Mr Erdogan’s wife Emine wears a headscarf to official functions, as does the wife of his long-standing AKP ally Abdullah Gul, who was president before him.

Critics also pointed to Mr Erdogan’s failed bid to criminalise adultery, and his attempts to introduce “alcohol-free zones”, as evidence of his alleged Islamist intentions.

Mr Erdogan’s political opponents saw a lavish new presidential palace as a symbol of his alleged authoritarian tendencies.

Perched on a hill on the outskirts of Ankara, the 1,000-room Ak Saray (White Palace) is bigger than the White House or the Kremlin and ended up costing even more than the original £385m ($615m) price tag.

Mr Erdogan owes much of his political success in the past decade to economic stability, with an average annual growth rate of 4.5%.

Turkey has developed into a manufacturing and export powerhouse. The AKP government kept inflation under control – no mean feat, as there were years in the 1990s when it soared above 100%.

But in 2014 the economy began flagging – growth fell to 2.9% and unemployment rose above 10%.

On the international stage he has bitterly condemned Israel – previously a strong ally of Turkey – over its treatment of the Palestinians. The policy not only galvanised his Islamic base, but also made him a hugely popular leader across the Middle East.

He has backed Syria’s opposition in its fight against Bashar al-Assad’s government in Damascus.

But his tentative peace overtures to the Kurds in south-eastern Turkey soured when he refused to help Syrian Kurds battling Islamic State militants just across the border.

Okay. So, whose side was the president of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama, on during this attempted coup in Turkey?

Why, the guy who supports Hamas and the Syrian rebels, of course.

The Business Insider reports that

US President Barack Obama delivered a clear signal of support for the “democratically elected government of Turkey” on Friday night, amid anapparent coup attempt by factions of the Turkish military.

The White House said that Obama called US Secretary of State John Kerry late on Friday night to discuss the unfolding events in Turkey.

The White House said in a readout of the call:

“The President and Secretary agreed that all parties in Turkey should support the democratically elected government of Turkey, show restraint, and avoid any violence or bloodshed. The Secretary underscored that the State Department will continue to focus on the safety and security of US citizens in Turkey. The President asked the Secretary to continue to keep him updated as the situation unfolds.”

Nature abhors a vacuum, as evidenced, by the escalation inviolent world events, especially in the Islamic world.

And the vacuum that has nature particular ticked off right now, is the empty suit that sits behind the desk in the Oval Office in Washington, DC.

Before Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) ascended to the throne of The Regime, he did something no other candidate for American President has ever done.  He campaigned in Europe, where he was treated like a rock star, by both the Europeans and the sycophantic Main Stream Media.  This set the stage for Obama’s Foreign Policy efforts as President.

There have been so many issues that have weakened America on the world stage as Obama has pursued his Foreign Policy, it’s hard to know where to begin.  Come along as I try to relate a few high (low?) points.

1.  The World Apology Tour – Shortly after he took office, President Obama set off for the first of a two-part “World Apology Tour”.   After less than 100 days, he had apologized on three continents for what he viewed as the sins of America and previous presidents.

Per Karl Rove:

Mr. Obama told the French (the French!) that America “has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive” toward Europe.  In Prague, he said America has “a moral responsibility to act” on arms control because only the U.S. had “used a nuclear weapon.” In London, he said that decisions about the world financial system were no longer made by “just Roosevelt and Churchill sitting in a room with a brandy” — as if that were a bad thing. And in Latin America, he said the U.S. had not “pursued and sustained engagement with our neighbors” because we “failed to see that our own progress is tied directly to progress throughout the Americas.”

By apologizing to the world, then- White House Press Secretary Robert “Baghdad Bob” Gibbs said that Scooter had “changed the image of America around the world” and made the U.S. “safer and stronger.”

Having the British call him “President Pantywaist” made us “safer and stronger”?

2.  Global War on Terror –  In a memo e-mailed the week of March 25th, 2009, in the middle of the World Apology Tour, to Pentagon staff members, the Defense Department’s office of security review proclaimed that “this administration prefers to avoid using the term ‘Long War’ or ‘Global War on Terror’ [GWOT.] Please use ‘Overseas Contingency Operation.’ ”  And so it began.

On Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at the University of Cairo, Obama addressed the Muslim World.  Here is an excerpt from the 6:35 a.m. speech:

Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance. We see it in the history of Andalusia and Cordoba during the Inquisition. I saw it firsthand as a child in Indonesia, where devout Christians worshiped freely in an overwhelmingly Muslim country. That is the spirit we need today. People in every country should be free to choose and live their faith-based lives upon the persuasion of the mind, heart, and soul. This tolerance is essential for religion to thrive, but it is being challenged in many different ways.

Among some Muslims, there is a disturbing tendency to measure one’s own faith by the rejection of another’s. The richness of religious diversity must be upheld – whether it is for Maronites in Lebanon or the Copts in Egypt. And fault lines must be closed among Muslims as well, as the divisions between Sunni and Shia have led to tragic violence, particularly in Iraq.

Freedom of religion is central to the ability of peoples to live together. We must always examine the ways in which we protect it. For instance, in the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation. That is why I am committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat.

Likewise, it is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit – for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear. We cannot disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism.

Scooter believed that by reaching out to the Muslim world through changing and softening our terminology as it pertained to the Jihad declared against the United States by Muslim Extremists, his administration would make huge inroads in America’s relationship with the Islamic World.  After 7 1/2 years, it has done nothing but encourage our enemies, as evidenced by the increasing number of attacks by Muslim Extremists here in our country.

3.  Smart Power! – At her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State nominee Hillary Clinton said:

We must use what has been called smart power, the full range of tools at our disposal—diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural—picking the right tool, or combination of tools, for each situation. With smart power, diplomacy will be the vanguard of our foreign policy. This is not a radical idea. The ancient Roman poet Terence declared that “in every endeavor, the seemly course for wise men is to try persuasion first.” The same truth binds wise women as well.

Excessive humility has never been one of Hil’s problems.

Of course, Smart Power led to Arab Spring, which replaced Moderate Muslim Dictators, with Radical Muslim Dictators, backed by the Muslim Brotherhood. Great plan, y’all.

4.  Afghanistan – When Obama took office, he announced that Afghanistan was the true center of extremist activities.  He then told us that the Overseas Contingency Operation would be making a hard pivot from the main focus being on Iran to the main focus being on Afghanistan.  From there, he decided that the mountainous country of Pakistan (pronounced by the president, Pock-ee-stahn) was where all the truly evil Extremists were hiding.  He had two problems with this strategy:  the mountainous geography and unfriendly government of  Pock-ee-stahn.  Obama was advised by his military advisors that the best strategy was to use unmanned drones to attack Taliban (pronounced Tawl-ee-bohn by Obama) strongholds.  While the drones were very successful in killing members of the Tawl-ee-bohn, they have occasionally killed civilians as well.   That did not endeared us to that country’s government. Obama subsequently pulled out the majority of troops in Afghanistan, only recently to have had to send troops back in again.

While no President can control the actions of other countries come in their own affairs, the position of President of the United States has not historically been referred to as the Leader of the Free World for no reason.

That position has historically Ben the Vanguard in the fight against despotism and tyranny.

Unfortunately, for lovers of freedom the world over, instead of being the leader that the world and America itself needed, Barack Hussein Obama has instead been an example of the Peter Principle.

He has risen to his level of incompetence.

Until He Comes, 

KJ