In 2000, Clinton convinced a Republican Congress to withdraw a similar resolution to condemn the Ottoman empire's 100 year ago actions as genocide, saying it would further inflame tensions in the Middle East. Congress, in a rare, wise moment, did so.
Will they today? Hard to say. While claiming "credibility" for human rights stance, what the action really does is further damage a Turkish/American relationship. Perhaps to the point to throw serious speedbumps into the Iraqi front of the WOT.
Weigh the results. Condemn a government power base no longer alive for century old behavior, or risk our soldiers supply lines, drive up the cost of oil, and put another wedge into the Iraqis quest for a free nation.
Seems simple to me. Yet lobbyists and a Dem Congress, desperate to have Iraq fail under the Bush admin, have their own agendas. Or, as the Dallas News op-ed, "Now is not the Time" puts it:
My disagreement is that I believe the desperate liberal Congress *fully* grasps their consequences. Pelosi has a history of supporting this resolutions past attempts, saying recently there is never a good time to acknowledge genocide. Yet, for their agenda, the timing now could not be better because of it's effect on Iraq.
"Dismissed suggestions of any connection"??? The most civil comment I can say to such an attitude is that it's a reckless assumption for a Congressional leader while we have soldiers, depending upon this country's cooperation, in harm's way.
Read more on the Congressional "whys", the lobbyists influence, and the inanity of it all here.
Will they today? Hard to say. While claiming "credibility" for human rights stance, what the action really does is further damage a Turkish/American relationship. Perhaps to the point to throw serious speedbumps into the Iraqi front of the WOT.
Weigh the results. Condemn a government power base no longer alive for century old behavior, or risk our soldiers supply lines, drive up the cost of oil, and put another wedge into the Iraqis quest for a free nation.
Seems simple to me. Yet lobbyists and a Dem Congress, desperate to have Iraq fail under the Bush admin, have their own agendas. Or, as the Dallas News op-ed, "Now is not the Time" puts it:
It is madness for Congress to throw gasoline on this fire. President Bush wisely opposes the bill, as do eight former secretaries of state. It would put vital U.S. national security interests at risk, for no substantive gain. Idealism has real-world consequences. Congress has not fully grasped what taking this morally correct but diplomatically imprudent stance could cost this nation and its military.
My disagreement is that I believe the desperate liberal Congress *fully* grasps their consequences. Pelosi has a history of supporting this resolutions past attempts, saying recently there is never a good time to acknowledge genocide. Yet, for their agenda, the timing now could not be better because of it's effect on Iraq.
"The U.S. and Turkey have a very strong relationship," she said. "It is based on mutual interest and I with all the respect in the world for the government of Turkey believe that our continued mutual interest will have us grow that relationship. This isn't about the Erdogan government [Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan], this is about the [former] Ottoman Empire."
Pelosi dismissed suggestions of any connection between the House resolution moving forward and Turkish government plans for a possible military incursion into northern Iraq against Kurdish rebels.
"Dismissed suggestions of any connection"??? The most civil comment I can say to such an attitude is that it's a reckless assumption for a Congressional leader while we have soldiers, depending upon this country's cooperation, in harm's way.
Read more on the Congressional "whys", the lobbyists influence, and the inanity of it all here.
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