It should come as no surprise that Turkey so far refuses to put boots on the ground to fight the Islamic State takeover of Kobane, a beseiged Kurdish town across Turkey’s border with Syria. While there is much to criticize about our erstwhile NATO ally’s government, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has clearly made a calculation that he can’t trust the United States — or more accurately, that he can’t trust this administration. And why should he?

The level of confusion, incompetence and lack of will President Obama has demonstrated in dealing with the multiple crises that face us in the Middle East is mind-numbing. He has ordered airstrikes against ISIS, too late and too few, but he has refused to allow the military to do its job well. Without Special Forces spotters on the ground, an air campaign cannot be entirely effective.