On top of this disastrous scenario, the brutal Turkish campaign pushes further and further away the day when Ankara would be accepted by the European Union. U.S. abdication in northern Iraq, and its self-imposed blindness to the regional consequences of that abdication, undermine its proposed solution for Turkey's problems. This large, developing Muslim nation already faces nearly insurmountable hurdles in gaining EU membership. Washington needs to acknowledge the damage its vacillating policy on Iraq has caused Turkey and offer financial compensation to Ankara. The deal must include Turkey's ending its human rights abuses at home and the border war on the Kurds, as part of a self-help program to get ready to join Europe.
Friends challenge self-delusion.
They do not feed it.