7/25/2017 Can Turkey be Trusted with F-35s?

| commentary

LOG INHOME
CONTACT
ARCHIVE
Username
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
Password

Log In search
Remember Me Lost your password?
Log in

COMMENTARY MAGAZINE
Home
Subscribe
My Account
Donate
Contact
Log In

COMMENTARY MAGAZINE
Home
Subscribe
My Account
Donate
Contact
Log In

TURKEY

CAN TURKEY BE TRUSTED WITH F-35S?

Are the warplane's secrets safe?
Michael Rubin 2017-07-20
Michael Rubin / July 20, 2017

Get a free Commentary subscription for six weeks.learn more

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/turkey/can-turkey-be-trusted-with-f-35s/ 1/12
7/25/2017 Can Turkey be Trusted with F-35s? | commentary

HOME
CONTACT
ARCHIVE
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE

Log In search

AP Photo/Michel Euler

35The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is the newest generation air platform for the U.S. Air Force, Navy,
Shares
and Marines. Lockheed-Martin, which builds the F-35, describes it as a 5th Generation fighter,
Facebook
combiningTwitter
advanced stealth with fighter speed and agility, fully fused sensor information,
Google+
network-enabled
Email operations and advanced sustainment. For both diplomatic reasons and to
Print
encourage sales, Lockheed-Martin subcontracted the production of many F-35 components to
A factories abroad. Many program partnersAustralia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark,
for exampleare consistent U.S. allies.

Turkey, however, is also part of the nine-nation consortium producing the plane, which gives
Turkey access to the F-35s technology. As a program partner, Turkish industries are eligible to
become suppliers to the global F-35fleet for the life of the program. In total, F-35 industrial
opportunities for Turkishcompanies are expected to reach $12 billion, the warplanes website
explained. Turkey plans to purchase 100 of the F-35A Conventional Takeoff and Landing
variant.Its unsurpassed technological systems and unique stealth capabilities ensure that the F-
35 will be the future of Turkish national security for decades to come.
But is the F-35 safe with Turkey? In recent years, the Turkish government has leaked highly-
classified information to Americas adversaries in fits of diplomatic pique. Back in 2013, for
example, Turkey leaked to the Iranians the identities of Israeli spies in Iran. Danny Yatom,
former head of the Mossad, told USA Today that the incident would damage U.S. intelligence
efforts, because we will be much more reluctant to work via Turkey because they will fear
information is leaking to Iran We feel information achieved [by Israel] through Turkey went
not only to Israel but also to the United States.
On July 19, the Pentagon criticized Turkeys state-controlled news agency for exposing ten covert
U.S. bases in Syria in a way that can enable both the Islamic State and Iranian-backed forces to
target Americans. Bloomberg reported that the leak also detailed aid routes and equipment
stored at each base.

Both these incidents raise serious questions about whether Turkey can be trusted with the F-35,
especially given Turkeys growing military and diplomatic ties to Russia, and the wayward NATO
states recent cooperation with China as well. The United Kingdoms Ministry of Defense is
rightly concerned about the security implications of a plan to service its F-35s in Turkey, but such
concern should only be the tip of the iceberg.

Should Turkey even receive F-35s and, to the extent the program relies on Turkish factories, is it
time to stand up quickly a Plan B? To do otherwise might squander the billions of dollars already
spent on the program, risk increasing President Recep Tayyip Erdoans ability to blackmail the
West, and potentially land Americas latest military technology on Kremlin desks.
free Commentary subscription for six weeks.learn more
Get a ErdoganTurkey
filed under:Recep Tayyip
35
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/turkey/can-turkey-be-trusted-with-f-35s/ 2/12
7/25/2017 Can Turkey be Trusted with F-35s? | commentary

Shares
Facebook
HOME Twitter Google+ Email Print
CONTACT
ARCHIVE
COMMENTARY'S PICKS:
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE

Log In search

AMERICAN SOCIETY POLITICS & IDEAS POLITICS & IDEAS

THE SYSTEM WORKS ON RUSSIA: TRUMP VS. TRUMP

OTTO WARMBIER, MORAL
CAN
MaxTURKEY
BootBE TRUSTED WITH F-35S? Noah Rothman
PERVERSION, AND THE SOCIAL
JUSTICE LEFT
MUST-READS FROM MAGAZINE
Noah Rothman
SYRIA

SYRIAS FORSAKEN REBELS

Has Washington given up on Syria?

Max Boot 2017-07-24

Max Boot / July 24, 2017

AP Photo/Hassan Ammar
4 Last week, I wrote about one of the troublesome byproducts of the Trump-Putin summit in
Shares
Hamburg: a ceasefireGet
inasouthwestern
free Commentary
Syriasubscription for six will
that Israel worries weeks.learn moreIranian control of
entrench
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/turkey/can-turkey-be-trusted-with-f-35s/ 3/12
7/25/2017 Can Turkey be Trusted with F-35s? | commentary

bordering the Israeli Golan Heights. The day after my article came out, the Washington
that areaTwitter
Facebook
Post HOME
Google+ reported
Email on another troubling decision that President Trump has made vis a vis Syria:
Print
Ending a CIA program that had provided arms and training to anti-Assad forces.
CONTACT
A ARCHIVE
filed DONATE
under:Barack ObamaBashar al-AssadDonald TrumpSyria
4 SUBSCRIBE
Shares
Facebook
Log In search Twitter Google+ Email Print

COMMENTARY'S PICKS:

AMERICAN SOCIETY POLITICS & IDEAS POLITICS & IDEAS

THE SYSTEM WORKS ON RUSSIA: TRUMP VS. TRUMP

OTTO WARMBIER, MORAL
LIBERALS & DEMOCRATS
Max Boot Noah Rothman
PERVERSION, AND THE SOCIAL
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTYS FALSE CENTRISM JUSTICE LEFT
It's a duck. Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman 2017-07-24

Noah Rothman / July 24, 2017

AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

12Democrats are finally digging out of the wreckage the Obama years wrought, and are beginning
Shares
to acknowledge the Get
woesa they visited upon themselves
free Commentary with
subscription fortheir more identity
box-checking
six weeks.learn

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/turkey/can-turkey-be-trusted-with-f-35s/ 4/12
7/25/2017 Can Turkey be Trusted with F-35s? | commentary

Facebook
liberalism. Twitter
So, yes, the opposition is moving forward in the Trump area, but toward what?
Google+
Schizophrenia,
Email apparently.
HOME
Print CONTACT
A filed ARCHIVE
under:Chuck SchumerDemocratic PartyDonald Trump
12 DONATE
Shares SUBSCRIBE
Facebook Twitter Google+ Email Print
Log In search
COMMENTARY'S PICKS:

AMERICAN SOCIETY POLITICS & IDEAS POLITICS & IDEAS

THE SYSTEM WORKS ON RUSSIA: TRUMP VS. TRUMP

OTTO WARMBIER, MORAL
POLITICS & IDEAS
Max Boot Noah Rothman
PERVERSION, AND THE SOCIAL
CHALLENGING VIOLENT SPEECHUNLESS ITS ABOUT JUSTICE
ISRAEL LEFT
The border of incitement. Noah Rothman

Daniella J. Greenbaum 2017-07-24

Daniella J. Greenbaum / July 24, 2017

AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean

35The idea that speech can itself constitute an act of violence grows ever more popular among the
Shares
lefts leading polemicists. They argue that employing a politically incorrect word can be
Facebook
triggering;
Twitter
that the wrong gender
Get a free pronoun can
Commentary provoke; that
subscription words
for six more
and sentences
weeks.learn and parts of
Google+ Email
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/turkey/can-turkey-be-trusted-with-f-35s/ 5/12
7/25/2017 Can Turkey be Trusted with F-35s? | commentary

Print
speech are all acts of aggression in disguise. The left seeks to stop this violence, or less
A euphemistically:
HOME to silence this speech.
CONTACT
filed ARCHIVE
under:IsraelLinda SarsourPalestinians
35 DONATE
Shares SUBSCRIBE
Facebook Twitter Google+ Email Print
Log In search
COMMENTARY'S PICKS:

AMERICAN SOCIETY POLITICS & IDEAS POLITICS & IDEAS

THE SYSTEM WORKS ON RUSSIA: TRUMP VS. TRUMP

OTTO WARMBIER, MORAL
PODCASTS
Max Boot Noah Rothman
PERVERSION, AND THE SOCIAL
RUSSIAN UNDRESSING: AN EXPLANATION JUSTICE LEFT
Podcast: How bad is it? Noah Rothman

John Podhoretz 2017-07-24

John Podhoretz / July 24, 2017
Commentary Magazine

Commentary Podcast: Russian Undressing - An Explanation Share

Cookie policy

2
On the first of this weeks COMMENTARY podcasts, Noah Rothman and Abe Greenwald join me
Shares
Facebook
to sort throughand
Twitter we do it systematically, which is a first for uswhat is going on with the
Google+
Russia investigation
Email Get
andahow
free it
Commentary
divides into subscription for six
three categories. weeks.learn
Theres more
the question of the probe

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/turkey/can-turkey-be-trusted-with-f-35s/ 6/12
7/25/2017 Can Turkey be Trusted with F-35s? | commentary

Print
itself, theres the question of collusion, and theres the question of obstruction of justice. Its really
A good.HOME
I mean it. Give a listen.
CONTACT
filed ARCHIVE
under:commentary podcastDonald TrumpRussia
2 DONATE
Shares SUBSCRIBE
Facebook Twitter Google+ Email Print
Log In search
COMMENTARY'S PICKS:

AMERICAN SOCIETY POLITICS & IDEAS POLITICS & IDEAS

THE SYSTEM WORKS ON RUSSIA: TRUMP VS. TRUMP

OTTO WARMBIER, MORAL
EUROPE
Max Boot Noah Rothman
PERVERSION, AND THE SOCIAL
POLISH DEMOCRACY IN THE BALANCE JUSTICE LEFT
Democracy dies while the president looks the other way. Noah Rothman

Max Boot 2017-07-24

Max Boot / July 24, 2017

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

10Past U.S. presidents have used their bully pulpit to campaign for human-rights and democracy.
Shares
By encouraging the unprecedented wave of democratization that has swept the world since 1945,
Facebook
their words
Twitter
and actions
Get ahad
freeconsequences.
CommentaryThats not something
subscription that Donald
for six weeks.learn moreTrump does. Far
Google+
from it;Email
he positively praises dictators. His words have consequences, too, and they are not good.
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/turkey/can-turkey-be-trusted-with-f-35s/ 7/12
7/25/2017 Can Turkey be Trusted with F-35s? | commentary

filed under:Andrzej DudaDonald TrumpPoland

Print
A 10 HOME
Shares
CONTACT
Facebook
ARCHIVETwitter Google+ Email Print
DONATE

COMMENTARY'S PICKS:
SUBSCRIBE

Log In search

AMERICAN SOCIETY POLITICS & IDEAS POLITICS & IDEAS

THE SYSTEM WORKS ON RUSSIA: TRUMP VS. TRUMP

OTTO WARMBIER, MORAL
AMERICAN SOCIETY
Max Boot Noah Rothman
PERVERSION, AND THE SOCIAL
HOW CORRUPTION CRIPPLES AMERICAN UNIVERSITIESJUSTICE LEFT
Are the rewards worth the costs? Noah Rothman

Michael Rubin 2017-07-24

Michael Rubin / July 24, 2017

11Universities may be non-profit, but they are big business. At the end of fiscal year 2015, for
Shares
example, Harvard, Yale, and Princetons endowments were $38 billion, $26 billion, and $22
Facebook
billion respectively.
Twitter Those are correspondingly equivalent to the gross domestic products of
Google+
Mongolia,
Email
Cyprus, and the West Bank and Gaza. University presidents make salaries on par with
Print
and often higher than corporate CEOs. Fundraisingtraveling the world glad-handing alumni
A and lobbyingrather than academe has become the primary function of many university
presidents. Get a free Commentary subscription for six weeks.learn more

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/turkey/can-turkey-be-trusted-with-f-35s/ 8/12
7/25/2017 Can Turkey be Trusted with F-35s? | commentary

To be fair, universities have become ever more expensive to run. Government regulations and
mandates
HOME attached to the receipt of federal funds have burdened campuses with ever more
administrators.
CONTACT So, too, has the culture of victimhood, which requires an ever-expanding support
staff.ARCHIVE
Add into the mix the transformation of universities into country clubs competing to offer
increasingly
DONATE luxurious amenities, and management of a university requires ever more cash.
SUBSCRIBE
Universities pride themselves on diversity, which they too often define superficially in terms of
skin color. Attracting international students to campus kills two birds with one stone: diversity
Log In search
plus full tuition since the foreign students accepted seldom qualify for financial aid from the
university.

I am fortunate in my current job to be able to visit perhaps ten different colleges and university
campuses each year, sometimes for stand-alone lectures but often for debates. During these visits,
I am able to talk to students, professors, and administrators. In addition, many of my peers from
graduate school are now tenured faculty, and rising through the ranks of their respective
universities. Some of them have raised concern that certain dynamics surrounding ever
increasing numbers of foreign students from certain countries have been counterproductive to
universities educational mission.

The Peoples Republic of China sends several hundred thousand students to U.S. colleges, for
example. Saudi Arabia sends 60,000. Many of these students fit in and receive a top notch
education, but many also cheat on their applications. Academic corruption is fairly commonplace
in both countries. In the most blatant cases, students pay others to take various exams required
for college admissions, such as the Test of English as a Foreign Langue (TOEFL). Politically-
connected students in each country can ensure that their transcripts and extracurricular
portfolios highlight what American universities seek rather than what reality is.

Once admitted and on campus, it is clear that these students are not what they claimed to be. In
some extreme cases, they cannot speak English well-enough to communicate and cannot
understand what is said in class. This forces a choice upon the university: expel the sub-par
students or tutor them. The former maintains the schools quality of education; the latter protects
its bottom line. The unending quest to raise funds leads universities to choose the later. Some
justify this practice because the tuition paid by the substandard students or their governments
subsidizes the financial aid awarded to other students. Others recognize the problem but feel they
have no recourse. Add into the mix the fact that some Chinese national students appear to be
conducting surveillance on their peers, and the dynamics only get more complicated.

To be fair, fewer university administrations succumb to the quid pro quo of loosening standards
than do those which rationalize limits to free speech and intellectual inquiry. The general pattern
seems to be that middle-ranked undergraduate programs and masters programs at elite schools
make the greatest compromises.

How to resolve the problem? Financial discipline among management would go a long way. So,
too, would be a no-nonsense approach to standards. If necessary, universities should proctor their
own exams overseas. After all, if dozens of mainland Chinese students can pay $50,000 per year
to a university, that university should be able to find $5,000 to send a proctor to one or two cities
in that country to oversee and mark exams and conduct in-person interviews.
American universities are facing multiple crises. The Foundation for Individual Rights in
Education (FIRE) has documented threats to free speech on campus and, admirably, stands on
objective principle; it does not pass its judgment through partisan litmus tests. Threats to free
speech may get the headlinesand deservedly sobut as American universities increasingly
become global campuses, willingness to bend standards after the fact when foreign nationals
admitted do not match the abilities reflected on their applications can have a deeply corrosive
effect on educational quality in Americas most elite colleges and universities.

So many foreignersthe sons and daughters of political and business eliteflock to American
universities because they offer the best and broadest education. To destroy that reputation for
short-term gain would be mismanagement in the extreme.

11
Shares Get a free Commentary subscription for six weeks.learn more
Facebook Twitter Google+ Email Print
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/turkey/can-turkey-be-trusted-with-f-35s/ 9/12
7/25/2017 Can Turkey be Trusted with F-35s? | commentary

COMMENTARY'S
HOME
PICKS:
CONTACT
ARCHIVE
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE

Log In search

AMERICAN SOCIETY

THE SYSTEM WORKS

Max Boot

POLITICS & IDEAS

ON RUSSIA: TRUMP VS. TRUMP

Noah Rothman

POLITICS & IDEAS

OTTO WARMBIER, MORAL PERVERSION, AND THE SOCIAL JUSTICE LEFT

Noah Rothman
More Stories

Get a free Commentary subscription for six weeks.learn more

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/turkey/can-turkey-be-trusted-with-f-35s/ 10/12
7/25/2017 Can Turkey be Trusted with F-35s? | commentary

HOME
CONTACT
ARCHIVE
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE

Log In search

FOLLOW COMMENTARY ON:

28.3K
Followers
56.3K
Fans

LATEST FROM THE BLOG

CAN TURKEY BE TRUSTED WITH F-35S?

Michael Rubin
2

SYRIA'S FORSAKEN REBELS

Get a free Commentary subscription for six weeks.learn more

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/turkey/can-turkey-be-trusted-with-f-35s/ 11/12
7/25/2017 Can Turkey be Trusted with F-35s? | commentary

Max Boot
3HOME
CONTACT
ARCHIVE
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY'S FALSE CENTRISM
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
Noah Rothman
Log In 4search

CHALLENGING VIOLENT SPEECHUNLESS IT'S

Copyright 2016, Commentary, Inc, All Rights Reserved.
ABOUT ISRAEL
About
Daniella
AdvertiseJ. Greenbaum
5Privacy
Terms
RUSSIAN UNDRESSING: AN EXPLANATION
SHARE

CAN John Podhoretz

6TURKEY BE TRUSTED WITH F-35S?

POLISH DEMOCRACY IN THE BALANCE

Max Boot
7

HOW CORRUPTION CRIPPLES AMERICAN

UNIVERSITIES

Michael Rubin

Get a free Commentary subscription for six weeks.learn more

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/turkey/can-turkey-be-trusted-with-f-35s/ 12/12