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Have we ever stopped to ask ourselves if our treatment of Turkey has ben anything but unfair? When have Europe and the United States ever listened to Turkey´s requests for a more open treatment?  Ever since the occupation of the Turkish region of Cyprus, Ankara has been treated like a dangerous aggressor.  Like almost any nation, Turkey is guilty of many things. I do not present her as a little white lamb, but just maybe the situation from which she is trying to find daylight is in part due to our fears and prejudices that label her before conversations really start. Have we done much in the recent past that would have helped the Turks from being cornered  with nowhere to go as they are now? We may need Turkey as much as Russia and Iran do.

Again on April 18 , United merits a full page in Spain´s ABC. As if Sunday´s article were not enough, today we learn that a bride-to-be was put off the plane, another passenger was bitten by  a scorpion and yet another flyer was beaten up. Good work, United! You are showing that not everything made in the USA is quality.

Spaniards were alarmed by reports of over booking  by United. Since the travel season is fast approaching they are making efforts to fly via other national carriers. With the terrible reputation US Customs has as a source of bad manners and indifference  has in Europe, all we need is United where people are beat up. Over booking is a tactic to insure that the cattle cars go full.

The Spanish media this week was focused on the action-reaction to the bombing of al-Assad forces by the US and the Russian-Iran reaction. In general Spaniards approved the US move. There is little sympathy for and less respect for the butcher of Damascus and his neo-Soviet backer. What Spaniards are looking for in the US moves in Syria and then in  Korea, is a plan. Knee jerks offer no solution. Kim III and al-Assad are viewed as psychopaths who will work for their particular ends cost what it may. Spaniards hope that Mr. Trump can convince China to stand firm against Kim III.

In general, the Spanish media is  supportive of the United States´strike against the Syrian base from which that nation´s president launched a chemical weapons attack against his own people. The media also reports with quiet respect the movement of US warships toward the coasts of Korea. In the press and on TV there is open support for a reactivated American presence on the international scene. In Europe, President Obama´s timidity was never considered an intelligent attitude to adopt before the Russians, the Iranians nor the North Koreans. Europe and Spain conclude that the Obama passivity and Mr. Trump´s politically motivated isolationist posturing only increased Putin´s hunger for dominance on the world scene. While Dan Rather´s call for calm and meditation is wise, Europeans today hope that the strike against Syria will not be a unique show of force. They are convinced that the Russians and the Iranians will move to test the President´s resolve to stand firm. If they make a provocation and there is no response of force, the friends of al-Assad will continue to use any and all weaponry to destroy the dictators adversaries. Al-Assad is already beaten into the ground. Only the Russians and the Iranians allow him and his loyalists to continue the shame of national government in Syria. In reality what we are hearing and reading is Europe´s applause for America´s return to a role of leadership in the western world.