What do you get if you purge your political opposition and use torture, including physical abuse and rape, to do so? What if you sponsor islamic terrorists so much that you sicken even Obama who has a high tolerance for that sort of thing? What if you attack our backed forces while pretending to be fighting terrorists?
Obama will meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the sidelines of this week's Group of 20 meetings in China to discuss efforts against ISIS, the White House said on Monday.
That works since Obama and Erdogan have the same position on Islamic terrorism. They're for it.
The meeting, the first between Obama and Erdoğan since a coup attempt in Turkey failed in July, comes amid differences in strategy against ISIS. The US has condemned Turkish strikes on opposition groups in Syria, saying they are distracting from the fight against ISIS, also known as ISIL.
For Erdogan, the fight against ISIS is distracting him from his hobby of murdering Kurds.
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter cautioned Turkish forces Monday against advancing further south of the Syrian city of Jarablus and clashing with US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
"We have called upon Turkey to stay focused on the fight against ISIL and not to engage" the SDF, Carter said while speaking to reporters at the Pentagon alongside his Indian counterpart.
And Turkey will no doubt listen...
Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security adviser, said the meeting between Obama and Erdoğan would focus on those issues, as well as expressing US support for Turkey in the aftermath of the coup attempt.
When Obama travels to Laos later in the week, he'll sit for talks with the controversial new leader of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, who has drawn criticism for harsh tactics in his battle against drugs.
The US has expressed concerns about extrajudicial killings of drug dealers after Duterte's tough rhetoric about battling crime. Rhodes said he expected Obama to raise those concerns with the close American ally in their meeting in Laos.
No mention of Erdogan's torture and rape camps though. That CNN and Obama are fine with. islamists killing people gets their vote. Just don't touch the drug dealers.