Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rivaled the likes of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Iran’s Ayatollah Khameini and Syria’s Bashir Assad for the length of his rule, its ruthless dictatorship at home and its aspirations for imperial power abroad. 

In particular, in keeping with his Sharia-supremacist ideology, Erdogan has long sought to reconstitute the Ottoman empire and  become its ruling caliph. His recent success in replacing Assad with a murderous jihadist puppet seemed to clear the way for not only destroying our Kurdish and other friends in Syria, but running the table in the wider Mideast.

Suddenly, though, the would-be caliph is reckoning with violent revolts at home and relying on foreign jihadists to keep him in power. Official Washington’s reflexive response would likely be to try to prop us this supposed “NATO ally” who hosts key U.S. bases.

We should resist the temptation.

This is Frank Gaffney.