Attack on US sailors by Turkish protestors may be connected to incident during Iraq War.

Courtesy of CNN:  

Three U.S. Navy sailors were assaulted and had bags placed over their heads during a stop in Istanbul, Turkey, according to U.S. military officials. 

The incident, captured on video, happened Wednesday when sailors from the USS Ross were attacked by members of the Turkish Youth Union, according to local Turkish press accounts. 

"US Navy officials are working with the embassy and NCIS to investigate the incident. The three sailors were unharmed and are safely back aboard. They did not require medical attention," Capt. Greg Hicks, a spokesman with U.S. European Command told CNN. 

The assailants appeared to be neo-nationalists shouting slogans like "Yankee Go Home," according to local press accounts. They did not appear to be tied to ISIS, which is based in neighboring Syria.

Like many of you I saw this video yesterday but was a little confused as to why Turkish protesters were so upset with American military members. I thought we were cool with Turkey.

So I did some digging around and found what might have been the trigger.

See for yourself:

The Hood event (Turkish: Çuval Olayı) was an incident on July 4, 2003 following the 2003 invasion of Iraq where a group of Turkish military personnel operating in northern Iraq were captured, led away with hoods over their heads, and interrogated by the United States military. The soldiers were released after sixty hours, after Turkey protested to the United States. 

Though neither side ever apologized, a US-Turkish commission set up to investigate the incident later issued a joint statement of regret. In addition, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote a letter to the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressing sorrow over the incident. The Hood event damaged diplomatic relations between Turkey and the United States and marked a low point in US-Turkish relations. While the incident received comparatively little coverage in the United States, it was a major event in Turkey, many of whose citizens saw it as a deliberate insult and nicknamed it "The Hood event".

You know it may take decades for us to realize just how badly America's reputation has been damaged by the invasion of Iraq, and there is little doubt that more Americans will be hurt or possibly killed because of it, either in attacks overseas or terrorist attacks here at home.

I just know that the Right Wing will try to find some way to blame this on Obama, but if this incident was indeed the trigger, I think we all know where the fault lies. 

Hopefully the lessons we learn from this absolutely unnecessarily military action will not be forgotten, like the ones from Vietnam clearly were.