Stability in the Indo-Pacific rests on the degree to which the United States continues to forward and base hundreds of thousands of its military forces, along with ships, submarines, and fighter planes. A precipitous U.S. withdrawal would certainly lead to unforeseen effects and a breakdown in relations would almost certainly cause economic disruption and possibly lead to wider global conflict.

Turkish-Israeli relations all but collapsed earlier this year. Yet the current downturn in relations is made even worse by Mr. Erdogan's decision to reach out to China.

David Ignatius has yet another Iran leak from the White House. Here’s the gist: Obama told his close buddy Turkish PM Erdogan to tell his close buddy Ayatollah Khamenei that as long as Iran doesn’t seek nuclear weapons, Obama’s cool with them keeping their nuclear program.

In a complaint filed yesterday in U.S. District Court, Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri, aka Turkcell, the Turkish mobile media giant, alleges that MTN Group Ltd, Africa’s largest mobile operator, bribed Iranians, sold South African votes at the IAEA and UN, and otherwise prostituted South African foreign policy to oust Turkcell from its contract in Iran and gain the lucrative market for itself.

Can the frayed relationship between the United States and Turkey be repaired?

The failure of Kurdish leaders to fulfill their diplomatic agenda extends beyond the latest Turkish incursion. Turkey's occupations, however, provide the Kurdistan Regional Government with an opportunity.

If Iraqi Kurdish leaders had the power to prevent the Turks from acquiring the tools of massacre but did not, they should be willing to explain why, or be forced to acknowledge they use the rhetoric of Kurdish empowerment insincerely.

Iraqi Kurdistan will always be weaker than Turkey and, to officials in Washington, it will always be less important than Turkey so long as Turkey remains in NATO. Still, the Kurdistan Regional Government can seize diplomatic initiative and perhaps protect its own people and force Turkey to moderate its actions, if only Kurdish leaders would play their hand more skillfully.