Photo: Seabrook (TX) Sunrise - today (Congrats Al Gore on the Peace Prize. Due to global warming, the Clear Lake scene in this photo will be three feet higher--in water level--sometime this century, when today's kids are my age).
Congress is about to do the same thing the administration has done since the beginning of the Iraq war -- shoot itself in the foot by a policy blunder that makes a bad situation worse.
The same Democrat leadership who want the U.S. to get out of Iraq immediately just stirred up bigger trouble for it --by insisting on bringing up a century-old issue that threatens to break the only quiet spot in Iraq --the Kurdish north which borders Turkey.
Why did Ms. Pelosi insist that we have to recognize a century-old genocide issue NOW when all it will do today is produce greater tension with an ally we need next to Iraq (Turkey)? Yes, it was genocide but why it is so important to rush it to a vote now?
This action by Congress will decrease cooperation from a country with a key border on Iraq's north --and could start another front in Iraq if the old conflict between Turkey, Armenians and the Kurds comes out of this.
Turkey has even recalled its Washington Ambassador because of this train wreck of a vote.
What is Nancy Pelosi thinking? Why inject an issue from a century ago into the most volatile, destabilized country in the world right now--Iraq? So we can create a Turkish-Armenian-Kurd war to add to the Shiite, Sunni and Al Qaida battle?
Congress should reconsider its Armenian resolution. So far it has been the only brake on those wishing to widen the war to include Iran. Now Congress itself is generating conflict with Turkey that will further destabilize Iraq and the region as a whole.
3 comments:
Recognition is the right thing to do..there is never a good time to do it..after 92 years its about time...Having lost grandparents in the Genocide I find it apalling that it took so long for the US to recognize it...What right does Turkey have to tell Congress what to do...what right do they have to threaten us for recognizing the Genocide...Remember what Hitler said...Who remembers the Armenian Genocide? maybe if we did the Holocaust would never had happened...shame on the deniers...
No one is denying it (not me anyway). It happened.
My point is that this is bad timing --like throwing gasoline on a fire. Already turkey is near a war with the Kurds. This only increases tensions that will lead to more people being killed.
Is a resolution worth further destabilizing an unstable area?
I was unable to find much empirical data on how many perished and if there are any official orders from Ottoman government specifically for extermination of Armenians. Few dozen survivor stories and comments made by Christian missionaries of the time do not amount to any type of proof.
Most in the West know about this issue through media without any real data, and then assume that it is real.
Could it be real? Maybe. As there are no written evidences, only the tales of survivors, how can we come up with 1.5 million deaths? Did anyone counted? The numbers were half a million in 20s, then 750K; in 80s it went up o 1.5 million. Some today suggest that it was 2 million. Can the number of victims increase 90 years after their deaths?
Why don’t West accept Turkish government's offer for a joint historic research based on empirical data? Is Westerners become such emotionally charged and illogical people in shining armor thinking that they are honoring Armenians while Iraqis are dying in masses as we speak?
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