Glenn Beck; Canary in a Turkish Coal Mine

While I can't say that I'm a big fan of Glenn Beck, every so often he will make a prediction or statement that turns out to be exactly true months, even years later. Today I was reflecting on the Turkish military incursions into northern Iraq, and I remembered Glenn Beck going nuts about a Turkish movie back in 2006, Valley of the Wolves Iraq. It had the largest budget of any Turkish movie ever made, and was a domestic hit. It set records. They even spun it into a popular TV series.

The film was released in 2006, and basically was about Jews and Americans invading Iraq to harvest the organs of innocent Muslims. Watch the trailer and decide for yourself the film's intent. If that is not a propaganda film to gain public support for a military campaign, I don’t know what is. It is quite frightening. They even brought in the legendary Gary Busey to play the American Doctor who harvests organs to sell to rich Jews in New York. You have to wonder what was going through Busey's brain when that script landed on his doorstep? Hmmm, Valley of the Wolves Iraq, sounds interesting.

The current Islamist Prime Minister Erdogan was first elected in 2002 with 34% of the vote. In 2007 he was re-elected with 47% of the vote. His time in power has seen an escalation of the Turkish conflict with the Kurdish people and a number of military incursions into Iraqi territory. The Kurds have lived and survived in that region for a few thousand years and want a country of their own, not unlike the Palestinians. The Turks allege that the Kurds in northern Iraq are smuggling weapons into Turkey to hit Turkish targets, which justifies preventative military action to ensure that those weapons don't kill innocent Turkish civilians. But when Israel endeavors to prevent weapons from being smuggled into their backyard to kill innocent Jews, Erdogan calls that state sponsored terrorism.

I tried to find a Youtube clip of Glenn Beck back on CNN Headline News talking about Turkey and this movie in 2006, but had no luck. His warning was that this is no longer the Turkey that we were friends with during the cold war. There is still a strong centrist secular movement in that country, and to those people I say may the force be with you.