Turkey, a victim of Erdoğan's inflammatory rhetoric

"Ten years ago, the Americans helped Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar province west of Baghdad form the 'Awakening' movement to defeat a previous incarnation of violent fundamentalist Islam - al-Qaeda in Iraq.

"After U.S. troops mostly left Iraq, it was the failure of the [former Prime Minister Nouri] al-Maliki government to continue supporting the Awakening which helped the self-styled Islamic State move in and occupy key cities like Ramadi, Fallujah, Tikrit... and Mosul."

Who wrote this? Not me. It was Hugh Sykes from BBC Radio 4.

"At the time, administration officials, including President Obama and Secretary of State John F. Kerry, openly blamed Mr. Maliki for the rise in Iraq of the Islamic State. 

"Mr. al-Maliki's aggressively pro-Shiite policies had alienated the minority Iraqi Sunni population and created fertile ground for the extremists to flourish."

Who wrote this? Not me. It was the Washington Times, in an article dated July 15, 2015.

I vividly recall Turkey's objection to al-Maliki. Ankara warned the U.S. about al-Maliki's divisive sectarian policies a thousand times. Those with a short memory may have forgotten the exchange of verbal blasts between Erdoğan and al-Maliki. 

It took eight years - the rise of ISIL and the fall of Mosul to it - for the U.S. to be finally be convinced to force al-Maliki out of power in 2014. 

Looking back at the bitter exchanges between Erdoğan and al-Maliki, who both accused each other of fomenting sectarianism, who should feel vindicated today? You may hate to say it, but it is Erdoğan.
Some of the foreign policy stances endorsed by Turkey do have a rationale. But when they are explained by Erdoğan, they lose all common sense.

The reason why I...