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RUSH:  Now, you realize this attack in Turkey at the Ataturk airport — by the way, Ataturk is the guy Turkey was named after.  He was a big, big, powerful, mean dude, something like Frank Ataturk.  I don’t know what his first name was.  Anyway, do you know that the guy that runs Turkey now, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, although it’s not pronounced that way.  I’ve only heard Erdogan pronounced correctly once, and I don’t remember how.  The guy has practically implemented Sharia law throughout Turkey. 

This is the point.  And if he hasn’t completed it yet, that’s the objective.  Turkey is gonna become full-fledged Sharia, and yet ISIS still hit them, still hit them at the airport. 

Greetings, my friends, and great to have you here.  Oh, yeah.  Sorry.  Dittocam’s on.  Forgot to take — can’t do it all here.  You know, it’s up to me, why doesn’t some of this stuff end up being automated in this era?  Anyhow, sorry.  It’s on now.  It’s 800-282-2882 if you want to be on the program, and the email address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com

So as I was saying, the death toll, we’re up to I think almost 50 people dead, 239 people wounded at the Ataturk airport in Istanbul, which is one of the major airports of the world.  Three terrorists broke through security with rifles and then set off bombs in their vests, killing at least 50.  The death toll keeps climbing. 

And since it is awkward to try to blame guns for this attack, given that Turkey practically has banned its citizens from owning firearms, the Drive-Bys and the rest of the Obama administration are scrambling to come up with somebody to blame here.  The media is pretty much ignoring the attack altogether, just assuming that this is the new norm now. 

But really, they can’t go after guns here.  They can’t go after guns.  This is one of the reasons why the Drive-Bys, you might expect this to be wall-to-wall coverage.  It’s a terror attack.  And Trump has said some pretty powerful things about it.  You would think they’d — but they’re not.  Why are they not wall-to-wall with this? 

Now, they might have been in certain places last night, but you have to admit, they didn’t cover this like usual, normal terror attacks.  I’m telling you one of the reasons why — you can be snarky all you want, you can be cynical all you want — is because there’s no way to advance the gun control agenda here.  Even in Turkey, they’re on the way to having Sharia law.  It’s practically impossible for law-abiding people to get guns in Turkey anyway.  So this just kind of illustrates what will happen if gun control, if they eliminate the Second Amendment here, it’s not gonna stop acts of terror.  It’s not gonna stop acts of crime. 

It isn’t going to stop anything like this, and the Democrats and the media, they all know that, folks.  It’s just misdirection.  They want guns out of everybody’s hands for reasons unrelated to what they claim to be interested in.  They want to save lives.  No, it’s not about that.  They want to reduce crime.  No, it’s not about that.  That’s not why they want to get rid of the Second Amendment, and that’s not why they want you to have to give up your gun. 

You notice the gun control efforts are always aimed at the law-abiding?  Has it ever struck to you as strange gun control efforts aimed at the law-abiding, and here in Turkey since there’s no way to advance the gun control agenda here in the US, it’s sort of a ho-hummer.  Oh, well, you know, it’s ISIS. It’s basically an Islamic country.  So maybe there’s things going on that we’re not aware of.  Not quite a ho-hummer, but still isn’t a big deal. 

Now, John Kerry, by the way, served in Vietnam, has come up with an explanation.  In fact, he’s even leapt to conclusions and said that ISIS was behind the attack.  Now, Kerry calls them Daesh because he wants to seem smarter than everybody else.  You and I call it ISIS. Obama calls it ISIL, and Kerry calls it Daesh, D-a-e-s-h, because that’s the term the French like.  I’m not making that up.  Daesh is the term that the French like, so that’s what Kerry uses, and because it’s, in his mind, much more sophisticated to use the term Daesh. It also conveys more respect for the group than to simply call them the derisional ISIS. 

But the real kicker is that John Kerry, who once served in Vietnam, said this latest attack is proof that ISIS is losing.  Well, because they’re getting desperate.  They’re getting desperate.  They had to attack a country they practically run anyway.  It shows how desperate they are. 

Now, the irony is that is exactly the kind of thing US generals used to say during the Vietnam War.  In fact, the generals at the time said that the Tet offensive was a sign of how desperate the North Vietnamese and Vietcong were. And actually they were telling the truth, unlike Kerry, but in reality the North Vietnamese only won because of defeatists like Kerry.  I don’t want to get sidetracked with that, but that was a victory that was a defeat snatched from the jaws of victory by the likes of John Kerry, who served in Vietnam. 

Now, in terms of a proper response, I haven’t heard much love and empathy from the Obama Regime, even though Loretta Lynch said just a couple of weeks ago that this is the only way to respond to terrorism, which is what?  Now, I don’t know, ISIS apparently didn’t get the message.  You know, ISIS, there was a memo that went out, sort of like a rah-rah memo, the leaders of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, actually, sent a memo out, “From now on, acts of terror, make sure you hit white people.  Do not attack people of color, do not attack minorities, because in America the media will blame the Tea Party for it, and you won’t get credit.” 

No, no, no.  Folks, I’m not making this up.  Al-Qaeda actually sent out an operational memo to its jihadist groups urging them in further acts of terror, do not kill, do not hit minorities. Because if you hit minorities they’re gonna blame conservatives, Second Amendment, guns, and the terrorists won’t get their due credit.  So from now on acts of terror, only hit white people, because hate crimes against them are permitted, and the media will play it up. White people deserve to be hit, deserve to be the victims of crime and acts of terror because they have for so long been the unfair, unjust, immoral majority throughout most of the nations that are imbued with Western civilization.  If you think that’s an exaggeration, it isn’t.  That is exactly how the Democrat Party of today and the American left looks at things. 

White Christians who found America, they deserve all this grief because they caused so much for so many hundreds of years.  I’m not… It’s the only way that you can understand the true motivation of these people.  In other words, it’s impossible for minorities, impossible for people of color to be ever guilty of hate crimes.  Because their only crimes are justified.  Their crimes are justifiable.  It’s retribution and payback for years and decades and maybe even centuries of oppressive behavior at the hands of the white majority.

Not just here. Not just here. 

The UK, all throughout Western civilization.  That is the mode of thinking.  Why do you think immigration is happening?  Why do you think only certain kinds of people are allowed to legally immigrate?  Have you noticed that when it comes to immigration we ride herd on legal immigration pretty damn hard, and who is it that really is subject to most of the limits there?  Have to say it’s white immigrants. But when it comes to illegal immigration and open borders, if you happen to be a minority or person of color or whatever?

“Come on in! Come on in! Because it’s time for you to get your payback now for all the ways you’ve been mistreated by the evil people that founded and ran the United States of America for so long.” It was Mustapha Kamal Ataturk, the founder and first president of Turkey.  I was wrong when I said it was Frank.  (I mean, I knew it wasn’t Frank.)  Mustapha Kamal Ataturk.  Let me tell you something, the guy was a bad actor. You didn’t want to mess with him.  I mean, he’s a serious, serious…

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Have you noticed in the aftermath of the terror attack at Ataturk airport, they don’t do that?  There aren’t any vigils?  There aren’t any candlelit ceremonies; there aren’t any pictures of whatever. They haven’t stopped everything to have an ongoing memorial. 

They just got back up and picked up the pieces and started operating the airport again as though that was yesterday, which it was.  Not even the Drive-Bys have noticed this.  in fact, grab audio sound bite number seven.  Don’t worry.  I know I’ve interrupted myself, but I have not lost my place.  Audio sound bite number seven, CBS This Morning.  This is Holly Williams reporting about the terror attack at the Ataturk airport in Istanbul.

WILLIAMS:  If you look behind me, you can see what appears to be damage from one of the blasts, but come over here and you can see that the airport is operational.  Less than 24 hours after this attack, it’s full of passengers.  This is one of the busiest airports in the world.  If you look over here, you can see that there is a lot of shattered glass in this area.  It’s not clear whether this is from gunfire, whether that’s a bullet that’s done that or shrapnel from one of the blasts.  Now, the Turkish prime minister, Binali Yildirim, said there are indications that this was the work of ISIS, but so far there’s been no claim of responsibility.

RUSH:  Now, folks, I’m telling you that’s noteworthy here that these Muslim countries don’t spend any time on vigils, lighting candles, singing songs, laying wreaths of flowers. They don’t spend days and days trying to figure out the motive. They didn’t convene any on-the-spot seminar saying, “Why do they hate us?” ‘Cause they already know why this happened. They already know who did it. They already know why, and everybody’s up and back to their business here.  (interruption)

No, no, no, no, no.  I’m just noting the difference.  Do not assume I’m criticizing anyone.  I’m just noting the difference.  If this happens in an American airport, you know full well there are candlelight vigils, there are wreaths of flowers, there are pictures, there’s… It’d be going on for weeks.  It’s one of the ways we grieve.  They don’t.  They just… Did you notice also in this report that Holly Williams, in describing the damage from the blast, wasn’t sure if it was from a bullet or shrapnel from a bomb?

Oh, they’re praying it was from a bullet so they could focus on the guns, but everybody knows bomb control doesn’t work.  

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  Look, I don’t want to mislead anybody.  Ataturk is actually… It’s a name that denotes “father of the Turks,” and the name was granted to Kemal Ataturk in 1934 and forbidden to any other person by the Turkish Parliament.  Now, the reason Ataturk, Kemal Ataturk was and is so highly reputed, is he was attempting to modernize… That’s not the right word.  Well, it is.  For lack of a better way of saying it, he was trying to make Islam compatible with the modern twentieth century world. 

There are a few such Islamic leaders who have attempted to do so, and they don’t last long.  The terrorists get into gear; the militants like Al-Qaeda and ISIS target them.  But that’s who he is.  And I’m now reliably told that the correct pronunciation of the current president of Turkey’s last name is Erdogan.  It’s E-r-d-o-g-a-n, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is what it looks like, but it’s Erdogan.  And he is attempting to implement Sharia throughout the country.  It’s what makes this attack interesting to me. 

I mean, they think it was ISIS, and ISIS attacks infidels and nonbelievers, so there’s some political problem that ISIS has with Turkey.  It could involve the Syria war and who’s funding here, who’s buying oil from who, and who isn’t.  So this may have ramifications simply beyond the tenets of Islam, not excluding aspects of Islam in the attack, but it may be a little bit more than that.  I guess we just rely on what Kerry said, that it just means they’re losing, that they did this, and that they’re desperate, is why they did this.  

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  President Obama is in Ottawa, Canada.  Do you know he called Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan?  He didn’t call Rick Scott in Florida after Mateen blew up the gay bar in Orlando.  Took him awhile.  But he called Erdogan right off the bat.  Anyway he’s in Ottawa, North American Leaders Summit.  And after a meeting with the Mexican president, Enrique Pena Nieto, President Obama spoke with reporters about the terror attack in Istanbul. No, he didn’t blame it on a video.  Not this one.

OBAMA:  I had a chance to speak to President Erdogan earlier today to discuss with him not only how heartbroken we have been by the images of the injured and those killed, but also to reaffirm our strong commitment to partner with Turkey, with NATO, with the broad-based alliance that we structured around the world to fight ISIL.  It’s an indication of them being unable to govern those areas that they’ve taken over; that they’re gonna be defeated in Syria, they’re gonna be defeated in Iraq.

RUSH:  It’s the same thing Kerry said. It all adds up to proof that they’re losing.  You know, when I hear this guy speak now, his reaction to a terror attack… I’m sorry. Because of what happened yesterday, I can’t get Benghazi out of my mind, and there’s something else I can’t get out of my mind.  I really can’t come to grips even now with the fact that this administration got away with so many abject lies.  The big one about a video being responsible for it. And furthermore, that some absolutely clueless…

This guy Nakoula Nakoula? They found this guy somewhere in California. They put him in jail. They put the producer that nobody ever heard of… They put him in jail.  They scared the daylights out of him. He went along with it. He was acquiescent as he could be.  The things lining that just didn’t happen in this country, and were they to happen somebody else they would be impeached. 

But to jail an innocent person on a false, bogus charge to carry forth a lie that is designed to protect yourself as president and your campaign? So now when I hear this guy speak about terrorism and the aftermath of attacks, I just don’t believe anything.  “We cringe, we cry, we join you in tears for the loss of life,” and so forth?  It sounds like he’s more upset about what happened in Turkey that he’s upset when these things happen in this country. 

Sorry.  It just comes across that way to me. 

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  You know, if ISIS is losing, I would hate to see what happens when they’re winning.  I’d hate to see what that looks like.  But Obama and Kerry say they’re losing.  

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, I want to expand on a point that I made in the first hour of the program about Turkey and ISIS.  I found it fascinating that ISIS, if it is ISIS — and everybody thinks it is — hit Turkey, because Turkey has been one of the biggest allies ISIS could have ever had.  Are you aware of that?  (interruption) You’re not?  Now, that’s interesting, ’cause you are a news junkie like I am, and you’re not aware of this.  Well, let me run through some things for you. 

Turkey was a helpful ally in ISIS’ ongoing war in Syria and Iraq.  Turkey has been helping ISIS in their destabilization efforts throughout the region.  Turkey allowed the oil trucks that are owned and operated by ISIS to cross Turkish borders so that ISIS oil can be sold.  That is how the ISIS leadership, that’s how the ISIS movement is being funded in part, which is a point Trump has made.  What the hell?  Why don’t we own that oil?  We’re the ones that liberated it.  Why didn’t we take it?  Why aren’t we in charge?  Why is ISIS?  We need to blow up their depots. We need to blow up their trucks. 

And everybody, “Oh, my God, the guy is dangerous, oh, my God.”  But Turkey has been assisting ISIS in a wide variety of ways.  At times Turkey has denied us the use of their airspace in Iraq and in other theaters of war.  Turkey has been an off-and-on ally, quote, unquote, you know, as Obama has drawn red lines and then moved the red line.  Turkey has wanted to present themselves as an ally of ours.  But make no mistake about it.  President Erdogan is aiming Turkey at a Sharia nation.  That’s where he wants to go.  He is a Sharia law, full-fledged, one percent Islamist. 

So what’s ISIS doing hitting him?  What’s ISIS doing blowing up the Ataturk airport in Istanbul?  Now, the reason I ask this is because our shortsighted, incompetent leadership in this country actually tells us that we can prevent more terrorist attacks against us if we would become more tolerant them.  Do they not?  We cannot call them Islamist terrorists.  We cannot call them radical Islamist extremists.  We cannot even say that they engage in terrorism.  We have gone to the realm of impracticality and impossibility to avoid offending these people, or worse, whatever might be going on. 

But regardless, Obama and his State Department and even the defense department are bending over backwards to give these people the benefit of the doubt.  Whenever there’s a terrorist attack, it’s not.  Whenever ISIS does it or militant Islam does it, no, they didn’t.  We do seminars trying to examine what we have done to cause them to hate us so much.

And if they hit Turkey, if they hit the Istanbul airport, the Ataturk airport in Istanbul, in a country that is on the road to becoming full-fledged Sharia, then how in the world is the strategy Obama and Hillary employ gonna be effective at all in stopping them here?  And you know what their strategy is?  Take away your guns. 

So we have the latest attack, which is the attack on the gay club in Orlando, and, no, we’re not gonna call ’em, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.  He was radicalized.  He was an American citizen and he was a fine young man until he got radicalized by that out of control internet.  Islam had nothing to do with it, militant or otherwise.  No, no, no.  The religion of peace, they don’t do these kinds of things.  Instead, we need to take your guns away.  That is the Obama and Hillary solution to these things, oh, yeah, and not saying “radical Islam.”  Oh, yeah, and not saying “radical Islamic terrorism.” 

Oh, yeah, doing all that, by closing Club Gitmo, yeah, we close Club Gitmo, we apologize for the photos that we took at Abu Ghraib.  That’s supposed to dial them back.  Really?  Well, if they blew up an airport in Istanbul in a country with a leader who believes entirely in Sharia law, then how in the world can we stop them?  I mean, using the same philosophies and strategies Obama and Hillary have put into place. 

Obviously it’s a joke.  They don’t know what they’re doing.  Well, I take it back.  Obama knows what he’s doing, and maybe Hillary, too.  But the point is, what they want us to believe they think they’re doing is totally ineffective.  It doesn’t have a prayer of working.  You know, Hillary’s out there saying, we need smart diplomacy.  We need to do smart power.  And that means empathizing with our enemy, understanding their grievances, like we understand the grievances of homosexuals, like we understand the grievances of African-Americans.  We must learn to understand the grievances of ISIS. 

Why?  Because ultimately everything’s our fault.  Everybody who hates us has legitimate reasons for hating us, according to Obama and Hillary.  We’ve been too big for our britches, we’ve been too rich, and our riches came from theft and colonialism, not from genuine accomplishment and achievement.  You didn’t build that.  Then go through these things, my blood’s boiling here as I remind myself of what these people tell us, and I remind myself how they think about us. 

If Recep Tayyip Erdogan cannot placate ISIS, how are we ever gonna be able to?  And placate is clearly what John Kerry, who once served in Vietnam, and Barack Hussein O and Hillary Clinton think is the only thing we have to do is placate them.  Because we’re at fault, see.  Our attitude all these years, our braggadocios pomposity, our overly confident, bigger than the rest of the world attitude has justified all this kind of stuff.

So we gotta find a way to placate them, let them know that it’s a new day in America where our current leadership does not hate them and, in fact, agrees with them on many of their grievances about the United States.  And that’s supposed to mollify them.  It’s supposed to tame them.  It is supposed to cause them to stop attacking us. 

It hasn’t.  We’ve had a major attack every year of Obama’s Regime.  I guess they’re telling us the truth.  ISIS and Al-Qaeda and whoever else, that is the only way they stop is after we convert.  That’s what they say.  The only way this stops is when the infidels convert. Well, that’s not happening. 

So what are we gonna have to do?  We’re not gonna convert.  If this nation ever goes Sharia, it’s gonna be because of the aggressive use of force.  You know, I take that back.  There is a segment of this population already that would surrender.  I have no doubt that there’s a segment of the population that would surrender rather than fight it.  But we’re not yet anywhere near a majority of Americans with that attitude.  

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We’re gonna start in New York City.  Andy, great to have you with us.  Hello.

CALLER:  Hey, Rush. Thanks for taking my call.

RUSH:  You bet.

CALLER:  My call is regarding the recent comments on ISIS bombing Turkey. I strongly believe that it was because of their view on gay rights.  If you remember a little less than two weeks ago, ISIS threatened to bomb Turkey because of their gay pride parade and they had to cancel it.

RUSH:  You really think this might be a factor?  Fascinating.

CALLER:  I strongly believe that, because if you look at their relationship with ISIS, it’s for the oil, just like America with Saudi Arabia.  Saudi Arabia has no similar views to America on anything, including gay rights. The only reason why they have a relationship is for the oil.

RUSH:  Okay, wait.  I’m having trouble understanding you.  What…? The first thing I’m confused about is, did you say that Turkey had a gay rights parade?

CALLER:  They were going to, yes.

RUSH:  Turkey was gonna have a gay rights parade?  Okay.  And they went ahead with it, and this ticked off ISIS?

CALLER:  No, it got canceled because ISIS threatened them.  A little less than two weeks ago. I believe it was on the 17th of June or so.

RUSH:  Okay.

CALLER:  ABC even reported that they canceled because of the threat from ISIS.

RUSH:  Okay.  Now, what’s…? Now, you transitioned to oil from that.  Run me through that again a little slower.

CALLER:  Yes.  Turkey —

RUSH:  It’s not your problem.  I just didn’t hear you.  Andy, it’s not your problem.  I just didn’t hear you.  I need to say it one more time.

CALLER:  Sure, no problem.  I believe that Turkey has a relationship with ISIS because they can get oil for a much lower price, correct?

RUSH:  That’s correct, and they have allowed ISIS to roll their trucks across borders.  They’ve facilitated ISIS’s use of oil as a revenue-generation operation. Yes, exactly right.

CALLER:  One hundred percent.  So I believe that’s the only reason why ISIS would be bombing Turkey is because of their view currently on gay rights.

RUSH:  Well, I must confess, I totally missed the story that there was going to be a gay rights parade in Turkey.  I wonder where I was when it hit.  That’s why I’m pausing here, ’cause I totally missed that. So I’m going to have to dig up the story and inform myself on it.  Not that I don’t believe you. Don’t misunderstand.  But let’s just go with this.  So Turkey…? Where it was gonna be, what city?

CALLER:  Truthfully, I don’t remember, but it was an ABC article from June 17th.

RUSH:  Okay.  Well, we’ll find it But ISIS threatened ’em?

CALLER:  Yeah.

RUSH:  ISIS threatened ’em and they canceled the gay pride parade?

CALLER:  Correct.

RUSH:  And that could…? Because they have a great relationship with oil. Your point is ’cause they have a great relationship with oil, it has to be the promising or the attempt to do the gay pride parade that has irritated ISIS and led to the attack; that’s what you think it is?

CALLER:  Yes.  If you see the news every day, they’re throwing gays off roofs. They’re attacking other countries because of their views.  I mean, what other reason could you come up with?

RUSH:  Well, it’s a good question because Erdogan is sympathetic to Sharia law.  That’s why you gave me pause here.  Sharia law is totally intolerant of homosexuality.  It’s not permissible.  So thanks for the heads-up.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  Okay.  I had a little time here to inform myself.  Our first caller from New York City said that Turkey was going to have a gay pride parade back on June 17th.  Andy was the caller.  And the way he said it made me think that it was an officially sanctioned gay pride parade in Turkey.  And I got caught short because it doesn’t make any sense.  Recep Tayyip Erdogan is hurling Turkey toward Sharia law.  He’s not gonna permit something like that to happen. 

So I was confused.  Turkey historically — and this is going back to Ataturk, the guy for whom the airport is named. He was the first leader of Turkey, and he was a Muslim that wanted to modernize and have a nation that was compatible with the modern world rather than have a seventh century Islamic State governing Turkey.  And that’s what he was known for. That’s what his reputation was.  There have been a few. 

I think Sisi in Egypt was the same, and he’s not… They’re not altogether happy with him, either.  Turkey since the days of Ataturk has been relatively… Oh, what’s the word? Modern.  It is an Islamic country, but you would not associate it with, say, some town or city run by somebody like bin Laden or some of the Saudi Arabian sheiks or some such thing.  But Erdogan was changing that.  Erdogan wants an old-fashioned Islam, if you will, for lack of a better term. 

Now, I want to tell you a little story just to set this up.  My troop visit to Afghanistan was 2003, I believe.  It was in February.  The years kind of run together.  It doesn’t matter when it was.  Toward the end of the visit, we were supposed to go to Bagram.  The base of operations was Kabul.  I was with a State Department contingent, USAID, the Agency for International Development.  And we were supposed to take a C-130 to Kabul. 

There was a mechanical problem; we were unable to leave.  So they ushered us into the military headquarters in Kabul where the coalition forces command was, and the commander of the coalition air forces at that time running the war in Afghanistan was from Turkey.  He spoke English.  And he hosted us for, I guess, an hour.  And I really, really liked this guy.  He was very open about their strategy and what they were doing.

And he addressed the fact that somebody from an Islamic country was leading the coalition against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.  But I remember this guy, even got his contact information.  Practically every point that he made, he preceded with a quote from “The Prophet,” even when he was talking about his daughter, who was soon to be getting married, everything was preceded by — and he’d smile. He had the nicest, most engaging smile. 

He was in full uniform, and he would look at us, and he was eyeing us suspiciously at times as he said this. But he would talk. He’d give us a quote from “The Prophet” and then make his point and talk about how his command was loyal to the teachings of “The Prophet,” and in no way did I get the sense I was dealing with any kind of a radical whatsoever, which I was very thankful for because the guy was commanding coalition air forces and air operations in the battle against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. 

It had to be 2003 because the Iraq war was going on, and I remember at the troop visit portions of the trip, many of the troops kept asking, “How come we’re not getting covered here?  You know, we got great success stories to tell here, and all we see on the news is what’s going on in Iraq.”  I endeavored to answer the question.  I said, “The media doesn’t want to show success.  Remember, George W. Bush is president, so they don’t want to show success anywhere.  That’s why they’re focusing on Iraq.”

Anyway, so back now to terrorism.  The point is by quoting this guy to you, you would find him as mainstream as human being as you could find anywhere, and he was Turkish.  So Turkey has not been a dyed-in-the-wool Islamist extremist country like you associate outlets run by ISIS or the Saudis or Qatar or even the Taliban or Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is bin Laden’s second in command.  As such, they have had in Istanbul since… What is it? They’ve had a gay pride parade in June ever since 2003. 

Now, here’s the thing.  Turkey did not sponsor it; it was not a promotion by the government of Turkey; it was just permitted.  So when our caller, Andy, said… You know, I’m a literalist, the mayor of Realville. When he said, “Turkey had a gay pride parade scheduled on June 17th,” I said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! That doesn’t work because Erdogan is trying to go Sharia.” Well, as my digging in the commercial break turned up, the gay pride parade was scheduled.

They’ve had one every June since 2003. They were gonna have another one this past June, this month, but it was denied.  The Turkish government shut this one down.  Now, this parade in the past in Turkey has attracted a hundred thousand people.  But Turkey banned it this year.  Now, that makes sense with what Erdogan, the head honcho in Turkey, is trying to do. The French News Agency reported:

“Authorities in Turkey’s commercial capital banned the 2016 Istanbul Pride parade citing security concerns. … This year’s gay pride parade — which is held either on the last weekend of June or the first in July — occurred during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The timing offended a number of conservative Turks…” Isn’t it always conservatives who are offended?

“The timing offended a number of conservative Turks in a country where the rising tide of Islamism has been testing the republic’s constitutional secularism…” Turkey has been a secular Islamic country for a long time.  I’m telling you, Erdogan is on the fast track to changing that. (interruption) It’s 2005, I was in Afghanistan. February 2005.  So to close the loop on this, the caller’s theory was that ISIS hit the Istanbul airport because of the gay pride parade. 

Well, that’s been going on since 2003, and it was canceled this year.  They were forbidden. Whoever sponsored it was forbidden from doing so last year, and they even arrested a couple from Germany, I think, and a couple other people who tried to participate. They tried to have a parade even though it had been banned.  Those people ended up being arrested.  So I don’t know what ISIS would be upset. When you get right down to it, what difference does it make why they did it? 

I’m not trying to parrot Hillary here.  Don’t… Why are we looking for justification?  Is there any?  Is there?  There’s no justification for blowing up and killing innocent people at an airport, so why we looking for the reason?  Well, there might be so geopolitical education to be gleaned here from learning the reason.  But not if you’re looking to justify it, not if you’re looking for some reason, “Oh, that’s why they did it.  Okay.”  No, no.  That doesn’t… That should never be the attitude. 

Innocent people never deserve to die no matter what, in a circumstance like this.  Actually, if you want to start looking for explanations for this, you’ve gotta start including the Kurds and Israel in this equation.  Not gay pride parades or any of that.  I think this goes much, much deeper than that in terms of explaining why. It doesn’t make sense that Turkey canceled, banned the gay pride parade for the first time since 2003 and then ISIS hits.  No, there’s gotta be something else going on here, and there is.

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RUSH:  Here’s Dale in Madison, Wisconsin, back to the phones we go.  Great to have you.  Thank you for calling.  Hi.

CALLER:  Hey, Rush.  Mega dittos.  I was very surprised to find that there were almost no stories linking the deal that Turkey made with Israel to normalize diplomatic relations after a six-year really rocky spell to this attack on the Istanbul airport.  It seems the deal was signed mere hours before the attack happened, and I’m sure this was done in retaliation.

RUSH:  Well, you know, you may have a point here.  I think the diplomatic relationship that Turkey just arranged with Israel is a factor, and so is the Kurds, Turkey may dislike the Kurds more than anybody, and ISIS is in conflict with them there as well.  But let me remind all of you of a similar set of circumstances that always puzzled me when they happened. 

Osama Bin Laden is Saudi.  His family is very wealthy, architects, any number of things.  While he’s alive and running Al-Qaeda, committing acts of terror and designing ’em all over the world, he’s in exile from Saudi Arabia and launching attacks on Saudi Arabia.  I remember when that first happened, I said, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute.  Saudi Arabia is militant Islamic extremism, Wahhabi Islam is extreme and violent.  These are the people that execute gays.  These are the people that stone women who show their face in public.  You don’t hear much about it, but it happens. 

They still behead people who commit what in this country are average, ordinary, everyday crimes, like theft and so forth. Or they’ll chop off a hand or some such thing, and they do it publicly in Saudi Arabia.  So I ask myself, why in the world is Al-Qaeda attacking them?  They would make attempts to damage the oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.  They attacked military barracks in Saudi Arabia where Americans happened to be housed.  Some people said, “Well, maybe it’s because of the Saudi relationship with the United States.” 

That became one of the many explanations for why Al-Qaeda, which was bin Laden and Zawahiri from Egypt, but it still made no sense, until you realize — so why is ISIS hitting Turkey?  Could be something similar.  Because what often happens with these Islamist regimes, there are differing philosophies in terms of how fast to go in getting to where everybody wants to end up, which is Sharia.  That is the ultimate objective for all of these places.  But they have different strategies on the speed with which they’re going to get there, and the strategies involve foreign policy. 

For example, Saudi Arabia cannot go pedal-to-the-metal on the way toward Sharia, although some might say they’re there, because they have a relationship with the United States that must continue. And they can’t make that relationship difficult for the US, so they moderate, and therefore they proceed — I’m using this as an example, not based in reality, but it’s a good example.  So in this case, in my example, Saudi Arabia might proceed toward Sharia slower than Al-Qaeda wants.  Al-Qaeda wants pedal-to-the-metal, nothing else in focus, we’re heading to Sharia, and the Saudis might not be going there fast enough, so Al-Qaeda hits them. 

The Muslim Brotherhood has this gradualist plan, if you will, to get to Sharia.  Part of the effort is to make common cause with the more radical jihadists so that there is a sort of peace, because even among Islam you’ve got enemies, as we have seen here with ISIS, if it was ISIS hitting Ataturk airport, and Al-Qaeda hitting Saudi Arabia.  So they calculate that the jihadists, the pedal to the metal crowd, the Bin Ladens of the world, will be grateful for the help even if it isn’t happening at the rapid pace the militant jihadis want it to.  But what always happens is that the Al-Qaedas of the world grow impatient with the plodders. 

Now, in this case, Recep Tayyip Erdogan would be considered a gradualist.  He is not decreeing Sharia as the law of the land tomorrow.  He’s making gradual steps to desecularize the country so it’s not a shock to everyone, doesn’t cause all kinds of panic in the western world and the Europe world.  And ISIS might be growing impatient. Even though they’ve been allied over oil and Syria, ISIS could be growing impatient.  Then they see the deal with Israel, and they say, “To hell with this.” 

And then they finally realize — and this is what always happens — ISIS turns on Turkey like Al-Qaeda turned on Saudi Arabia because when the end of the day is reached, ISIS says, “To hell with them running Turkey.  We want to run it.  Why should we sit around and let Erdogan take his time getting where we want him to go?  We’re just gonna take over and we’re gonna run Turkey.”  And Al-Qaeda said, “To hell with what the Royal Family is doing,” and that was really true.  Bin Laden had it in for the Saudi Royal Family, and people couldn’t understand that.  They thought they were making common cause.  They’re all Arabs.  What is this?  And it was all about the pace at which everybody was proceeding toward max Sharia, max militant Islamic extremism. 

So if that’s what has happened here in Turkey, it would have nothing to do with a gay pride parade, although that might be an ancillary item that would fuel the energy, but it just could well be that ISIS is fed up with Erdogan’s lack of pace.  One thing that I don’t know if people have come to grips with yet is just how serious ISIS is, just how serious militant Islamists are about Sharia.  There is no compromise. There is no halfway. There is no mutual cohabitation plan. 

It’s either all or nothing.  And if you resist, then they’re gonna hit you.  And that’s the world in which we live today.  And that’s why so many of us are scared to death that we have a leadership that either doesn’t see it or does see it and doesn’t care or doesn’t take it seriously or what have you.  But if you have a full understanding of what we’re up against and the leadership of your country doesn’t, well, hello.  That’s life in America today.  

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  So Koko up at the website just sends me a note, it says, “Hey, isn’t all this discussion of why they blew up the airport akin to asking, what was the alligator thinking when it grabbed the little boy?”  (Laughing) I get the point, but there are understandable reasons.  

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