Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The two meetings House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attended before a vote on a resolution labeling the massacre of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey a genocide foreshadowed the biggest political misstep of her speakership.

In the hours before a House panel approved the resolution Oct. 10, Pelosi was told in a tense meeting with Turkey's ambassador that the vote would endanger his country's alliance with the U.S. She had a warmer session with an Armenian cleric and representatives of Armenian-Americans, who have a large presence in her home state of California. In both, she made clear she intended to bring the resolution to a full House vote.

Since then, Pelosi, 67, has been in retreat. Her vow to bring the measure to a vote outraged Turkey, which recalled its ambassador and threatened to cut off the use of its military bases to resupply U.S. troops in Iraq. On Oct. 17, Pelosi said it ``remains to be seen'' whether the vote would occur after more than a dozen lawmakers pulled their names from the measure and some Democrats asked her to drop it.

``It's a good resolution but a horrible time to be considering it on the House floor,'' said Representative Mike Ross of Arkansas, one of the Democrats who withdrew his support.

``She dug in her heels to find that she didn't have her members with her,'' said Representative Ray LaHood, an Illinois Republican. ``If you get too far out in front of them, it can be embarrassing.''

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aD5_dx1DQhrA

http://mauberly.blogspot.com/

We've got a lot of things to take responsibility for in the Middle East, but the Armenian resolution isn't one of them.

And the timing of the House Foreign Relations Committee's resolution even more unfortunate.

The timing was always unfortunate. The resolution has come up for votes in years past and it's always been a bad idea, an attempt to defame Turkey, as far as Turkey is concerned.

These resolutions, whether condemning ourselves for the Native American massacres, pointing a finger at Japan for WWII sex slaves, or commemorating the Jewish holocaust, are non-enforceable gestures. Turkey wants to make it a point of contention; it doesn't start as a point of contention.

I can't believe Turkey would really invade Iraq over this. If Turkey does invade Iraq over the resolution, we're allies with an irrational actor. If Turkey doesn't invade Iraq over the resolution, we should deal with Turkey appropriately. This isn't about us or Bush. This is about Ankara.

the US cannot continue the Iraq fiasco very well without Turkish compliance. If Turkey makes good on its threats to diallow US military use of its country and airspace, the game is up for BushCo in Iraq. In fact, the US is already facing a dangerous new development with the emerging coalition of Sunni and Shi'a forces determined to end the occupation. Stretching out supply lines across unfriendly desertr that it does not control risks US forces getting cut off. Loss of Turkey would seriously complicate matters for US generals.

Get over George Bush. He's history, soon riding into the Texan sunset or playing Axis and Allies with John McCain on the veranda of their retirement home.

As long as he's got his finger on the button, as long as he can still send the US into war with Iran, George Bush isn't history.

people need to die so that some people can tell the truth?

I guess we'll find out.

Turks murdered over a million Armenians before WWII. That's the truth, and most people (even in Turkey) know it. In contrast, a US congressional resolution condemning Turkey for genocide is an act of one country scolding another, as if to say, "We are morally superior to you, because we would NEVER do something so vile, so obscene, so...uncivilized."

In light of recent events in Iraq, America's congress has a lot of nerve calling other countries uncivilized. But beyond the enormous hypocrisy, the condemnation is geopolitically foolish because it gives Turkey's government the "us versus the world" political cover to attack Kurds in northern Iraq.

I'm assuming that this move by Nancy Pelosi and company is merely an act of short-sighted pandering to their ethnic Kurd constituents. However, it could also be part of some darker, subtler judo to keep the Kurds suppressed by deliberately provoking the Turks into a shooting war with Iraqi Kurdistan. If so, it is too clever by half, because such a clash could easily trigger a wider regional war.

Wouldn't it be nice to have wiser people in government?

"Death before being dishonored any more." - Col. Ted Westhusing

Bush OK’s another Genocide by Opposing the Armenian Genocide Resolution

The last time a human rights issue created so much soul searching in America was probably September 22, 1862, when Abraham Lincoln signed a presidential decree for the emancipation of the slaves.
The House Foreign Relations Committee vote 27/21 on H. R. 106, acknowledging the Armenian Genocide, is the emancipation of the survivors of the victims of the genocide. Just as it took some years between Presidential decree of 1862, and the actual freedom of all the slaves in the United States, it looks like it is going to take some time for all Americans to embrace this human rights agenda.

Still, this is a giant step forward for more reverence to human dignity here in the United States of America and in the context of our image in the world both for our allies and for our adversaries.
This resolution is the greatest gesture of love and respect to the Turkish people. Those who advocate denial treat the Turkish people as inferior being not able to handle the truth. Our NATO brother-in-arms should know that, just as David Kaczynski brought his brother Theodore John Kaczynski (The Unabomber) to justice, America will not stand idle for deniers of Genocide.

By opposing this resolution, President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates have turned a blind eye to the Turkish government’s impending invasion of Northern Iraq and anticipated war against its Kurdish population. By opposing House Resolution 106 recognizing the Armenian Genocide, they are sending the Turkish government a clear message: the abuse of human dignity will not be appropriately opposed.

The rest of the our representatives, newspaper columnist, and ‘historians’ who oppose this human rights issue, trivialize the humanity of our Turkish brothers and sisters, believing they do not possess the common sense and the decency to be treated as civilized human beings. Instead, these deniers are dehumanizing the Turks and have marginalized our expectations, treating the Turks as if they are unable to look within and reconcile their past actions.

The statements made by these leaders are exact rephrasing of what Hitler said on the eve of the Nazi incursion into Poland. Go ahead attack another country; kill whomever you don’t like “who after all remembers the Armenians?”

Hence, while we do not deny the Holocaust and at the same time have bases and enlisted personnel in Germany, these people make us believe that we should treat the Turks as sub-humans with a different standard and let their governments deny a crime so that we can use our military bases within their country.

While other countries are criticized, sanctioned, and attacked when they conquer a neighboring country (let us not forget the first Gulf War when Iraq invaded Kuwait), these people wants us to believe that it is permissible for the Turkish government to attack and conquer half of Cyprus or invade Northern Iraq. While it’s a crime when Saddam Hussein attacks the Kurds living in Iraq, it is okay for the Turkish government to use napalm against its own Turkish-Kurdish population. Why? Because, we have to appease our ‘Barbarian Friends’, so that we can keep our military bases in their country.

Human rights are universal to all peoples of our earth, the right to live without fear of invasion, persecution or genocide. It is a standard we should hold all countries to regardless of our strategic relationships. It’s a standard all countries are capable of living up to, and if we stand by idly without demanding more of the Turkish government, by our inaction we too are complacent in their crimes.

It is a shame that the present administration still opposes this important human rights initiative. It is a disgrace that there are still people amongst us, who see no harm in denying a crime for profit.

This administration and its supporters marched into the White House as the defenders of the faith and the family values, they turned up to be a pack of wolves ready to sell America’s honor.

I am proud that my representative, Congressman Eliot Engel, voted for this resolution in the House Foreign Relation Committee, next step is the House floor.

I urge you to make sure that H. R. 106 comes to the House floor and that your representative votes for it!

Please contact your representative and have your friends, neighbors, and acquaintances do the same.

To find out how to contact your representative you may visit www.anca.org, or www.aaainc.org.

Thank you,
Kevork Kalayjian