It's all but over for Erdogan

Turkey is yet another chosen nation, chosen alongside Venezuela and Ukraine and so many others as a target for the "democracy promotion" antics of the National Endowment for Democracy.

The NED has invested millions in promoting accountability and strengthening democratic institutions in the country, and the rioting on the occasion of Berkin Alvan's funeral has proved that the money has not been wasted. But Erdogan probably can blame himself as much as outside meddling for his imminent demise.

It was he and he alone who undercut his own stature as a favored bumboy of Washington. First strike was that prissy refusal to allow the US access to Turkish bases in the Iraq war. That's quite something between NATO brothers, and you can believe the US has never forgotten or forgiven.

Then there was the Mavi Marmora incident. Did he really think he'd keep "favored friend" status after that debacle?

Lately he can scarcely keep ahead of the scandals, and now the generals he so gleefully put away are having their verdicts annuled. Thus far they're not having their commissions re-instated, but nevertheless this is a body-blow.

And let's not forget that America has been grooming an even more pliable candidate for Turkey's top job.

The Chris Kyle tragedy

Make no mistake; there is absolutely nothing redeeming about the Iraq war. It was a war that Americans were lied into by their own leaders. It was a war unjust, immoral, and unnecessary.

None of which prevents me from respecting the US troops who, following orders, found themselves doing what they were ordered to do over there.

By all accounts, Chris Kyle was an exemplary soldier. I respect anyone who achieves the elite ranks of their profession. I know how hard it is to hit a raccoon from fifty yards. I have nothing but respect for the skill set required to take out an Iraqi "insurgent" from 2000 yards.

This is a respect quite removed from political considerations or questions of morality.

And I have a certain empathy for Eddie Ray Routh. He too followed orders to Iraq.

Unlike Chris Kyle, Routh came back a broken man.

It was Iraq that was indirectly responsible for bringing these two men together. Kyle gave generously of his time to help vets who were crippled by PTSD. If these reports are accurate, and they certainly ring true, that's the mission that brought Kyle and Routh together that fateful afternoon at the Texas shooting range.

Why did Routh do it?

"I couldn't trust them and had to kill them before they killed me" he told his sister.

The paranoid reasoning of a mind broken by war.

This tragedy should not be laid at the feet of Eddie Ray Routh.

He is a victim as much as Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield are victims.

All of them are victims of the lying politicians who sent them over there in the first place.