SIVACRACY.NET: The Bag Incident?

Jonathan Schwarz reports at This Modern World:

"As you may know, a new Turkish movie called The Valley of the Wolves—Iraq is setting box office records there. Apparently it portrays America in Iraq as monstrous, massacring civilians and removing prisoners’ organs for patients in the U.S., Israel and England.

"Dispiriting. But what really caught my eye was this section of a recent Knight-Ridder story:

....Yusuf Kanli, the editor in chief of the Turkish Daily News, said the film is grounded in a real event known as the “bag incident,” which cemented the movie’s popularity in Turkey.

“Abu Ghraib is a deep wound, but it’s war, and war is never clean,” Kanli said. “But what happened in July 2003 can never be forgotten by any Turk.”

In that incident, U.S. troops arrested 11 Turkish special-forces officers in northern Iraq and walked them from their headquarters with bags over their heads. It was considered a bitter betrayal by a trusted ally. Turkish newspapers dubbed it the “Rambo Crisis.” Recent opinion polls rank it as the most humiliating moment in Turkish history.....

"What interests me about this is not only did I have no opinion about the “bag incident,” I had NEVER EVEN HEARD OF IT.

"In other words, it’s possible for America to do things to other countries that they consider “the most humiliating moment” in their history…and even anti-American America-haters like myself can’t be bothered simply to know it happened...."

I didn't know anything about "The Bag Incident" either, nor do I have any idea about the state of our relations with Turkey, and I do try to read a fair amount.

Comments

You probably haven't heard about "the bag incident" because the Turkish government didn't want you to know about it either. The Turks, while nominally a US ally, have their own agenda for Iraq(and Iran); mainly keeping the Kurds down. It is generally understood that they maintain their own covert networks in Iraq and Iran, run covert operators across both nation's borders and on occasion send regular troops into Iraq to test the waters.

If this interests you, try adding this site to your reading list: http://www.cdi.org/

Posted by: Jardinero1 | February 16, 2006 09:48 PM

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