Anyone see anything out of the ordinary with Turkey, a NATO ally, invading another country (Syria)?  What obligations do Turkey’s allies incur if/when Syria aircraft fly off with Russian support from Russian constructed Syrian in-country airfields to attack Turkey?  Will Turkey try to activate Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, obligating Turkey’s allies to come to its aid?

 Not a word of any of this in the – alas, typical – New York Times editorial today (August 26, 2016)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/26/opinion/a-complicated-alliance-with-turkey.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_ty_20160826&nl=opinion-today&nl_art=1&nlid=69540701&ref=headline&te=1&_r=0

To refresh memories:

NATO Treaty: Article 5

“The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.”

Maybe it’s a good thing, after all, that Establishment lawyers in Washington subscribe to the Addington/Gonzales dictum that the supremacy clause in the U.S. Constitution, and international treaties themselves, have become “quaint” or “obsolete.”  O Tempora, O Mores!