Not All Invasions Are Equal.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: Brief Article

At least nine times in the last eight years, Turkish forces have invaded northern Iraq to attack Kurdish rebels. These attacks--carried out with F-16s and helicopters made in the U.S.A.--are in clear violation of international law. But the U.S. government supports them, and the U.S. press barely takes notice.

The most recent invasion began in early April, with "more than 5,000 Turkish troops backed by air jets and helicopters" crossing into Iraq, according to a 274-word dispatch from UPI. AP weighed in with 325 words, which The New York Times helpfully trimmed back to fifty-nine.

The only detailed story I saw on the invasion was in The Guardian of London on April 3. Reporter Chris Morris wrote, "Almost anywhere else in the world, thousands of heavily armed soldiers crossing an international border would be big news," Morris wrote. "But this latest Turkish incursion into Iraq will be greeted with barely a murmur in the West."

Morris was right. The Clinton Administration endorsed Turkey's actions, and the U.S. media was all but mum. Morris underscored one irony: Turkey is bombing Kurds in Iraq "with U.S. and British planes providing protection." That's because northern Iraq is still a no-fly zone, which the United States insisted upon, ostensibly to protect Kurds from being attacked--by Baghdad but not by Ankara.

Since Turkey is a key U.S. ally in the region, Washington has no interest in seeing this story covered. Bill Clinton doesn't go on TV denouncing the Turks; Madeleine Albright doesn't wag her finger; and the U.S. press is AWOL, even though the hypocrisy of U.S. policy is patent.

"U.S. respect for territorial sovereignty is quite selective," says Chris Toensing, editor of Middle East Report in Washington, D.C. "When it's a close ally of ours that's breaking the law and crossing borders, we don't act, and we don't say anything."

Rare Praise:

* Michael Isikoff and Gregory Vistica, writing in the April 3 edition of Newsweek, note that U.S. policy toward Colombia shifted after a White House pollster brought data to Clinton showing that the public was blaming Democrats for...