The House Foreign Affairs Committee has decided to get tough about the Armenian genocide that took place at the time of of World War I, almost a century ago. Why the call to condemn today’s Turkey for the sins of the Ottoman Empire at this moment? Why the sudden move to condemn a Muslim ally of the US and member of NATO? Why undertake a move that “could cripple supply lines to American forces in Iraq”? Or maybe that’s the point. WaPo:

The Turkish government warned Thursday that a congressional committee vote labeling the mass killings of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire as genocide will “endanger relations” with the United States. The House Foreign Affairs Committee vote on the Armenian deaths — one of the most sensitive issues in Turkish politics and society — came as Turkish government officials prepared to ask parliament for authority to launch a military assault across the border into northern Iraq in retribution for Kurdish rebel attacks…

U.S. officials said Thursday that rising tensions over both issues could have far-reaching ramifications for American operations in Iraq. A Turkish military attack on northern Iraq could create chaos in that country’s only relatively stable region, and a Turkish threat to limit U.S. access to its air bases and roads because of the congressional vote could cripple supply lines to American forces in Iraq. “The committee’s approval of this resolution was an irresponsible move, which at a greatly sensitive time will make relations with a friend and ally more difficult,” the Turkish government said in a statement Thursday. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Thursday night it was summoning its ambassador in Washington back to Turkey…

Reuters reported: “The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee approved on Wednesday a resolution branding the killings during World War One as genocide. The issue of the Armenian massacres is deeply sensitive in Turkey, where it is a crime to portray them as ‘genocide.’ The non-binding resolution now goes to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, where Democratic leaders say there will be a vote by mid-November.”

This timing of a vote by Congress to condemn the Muslims who border northern Iraq for the genocide of Christians a century ago (a politically incorrect gesture in today’s world?) appears to be inexplicable except as a nasty piece of mischief to make the current work of the US and its military more difficult. Today’s politicians appear particularly craven, preferring subterfuge to straight talk in the decision whether to stand by our armed forces and their difficult mission in Iraq, or to try to end that mission by open debate and aboveboard measures. So they appear to try death by a thousand cuts instead.

For the record, Democratic Congresswoman Jane Harman also disapproves of the fervently anti-war Tom Lantos’ decision to bring the resolution up again now:

after a visit in February to Turkey, where I met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Armenian Orthodox patriarch and colleagues of murdered Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, I became convinced that passing this resolution again at this time would isolate and embarrass a courageous and moderate Islamic government in perhaps the most volatile region in the world. So I agree with eight former secretaries of State — including Los Angeles’ own Warren Christopher — who said that passing the resolution “could endanger our national security interests in the region, including our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan…there is the need for stability in the region. Turkey shares a border with Iraq, and the need for its continued restraint with the Kurds

The US military does not deserve the disrespect implicit in the actions of Lantos’ Committee and Congress, and frankly the remembrance of the victims of the Armenian genocide deserves better too.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 13th, 2007 at 11:43 am and is filed under Democrats, General, Religion, Republicans, War, idiots!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.