Erdogan gets his rockets….what next? Amid all the furore about Syria’s chemical weapons, and NATO ‘voting to allow’ Turkish Premier Recep Erdogan to receive Patriot missiles ‘for purely defensive purposes’, very few people are listening to what the Syrian state-controlled media are saying: viz, we have no such weapons and have no intention of using them.

Two key points to note here: following a few carefully staged border incidents a month ago, hey presto, Turkey winds up getting armed to the teeth with warhead-armed missiles. And if the Syrian rebels are now on the verge of success (which I suspect they are) why does Turkey need the missiles at all? Why, to shoot down any chemical weapons being lobbed onto Turkey of course. Well, of course. But, um, why would Assad do that?

Vladimir Putin has just returned from his postponed Turkish visit. He and Erdogan got nowhere. You read…