Why declare war on our allies?
Last week, the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs voted to condemn Turkey for the genocide that killed around 1.5 million Armenians between 1915-1917. The Foreign Affairs Committee is one of several hundred committees in the House of Represent-atives. With passage through committee, the non-binding resolution on the Armenian genocide will likely move to the floor for a full vote in the coming weeks.
I think that we can all agree that genocide is bad. John Stewart joked on the Daily Show saying, “A resolution condemning genocide? Uh, I think you gotta go ‘yes’ with that one!” But this issue is much more complicated than just saying genocide is bad. An interesting fact is that while the genocide ended in 1917, Turkey didn’t exist until 1923. In other words, during the genocide, the only turkey that existed was the kind you eat at Thanksgiving. The atrocities against the Armenians were actually performed by the Ottoman Empire, which was run by Turks.
But the case against the House’s condemnation is so much more than just one little technicality. Turkey is in a very important geographical position for U.S. interests. Resting just north of Iraq, Turkey plays a major role in the war. Turkey is also very much aligned with the United States. Radio talk-show host, Neal Boortz, describes how 70 percent of U.S. air cargo for Iraq goes through Turkey. Along with 1/3 of the fuel for the U.S. military. There are also numerous bases the United States uses to supply water and necessities to northern Iraq. In short, Turkey is absolutely vital to the U.S. in the war in Iraq.
President Bush urged Congress to drop the resolution, at least for now. But Congressional Democrats did not listen as they pushed the non-binding resolution through committee. The repercussions of this are already being seen as Turkey recalled its Ambassador to the U.S. just hours after the vote. Turkey’s military chief, General Yasar Buyukanit, says that if the House of Representatives confirms the committee’s ruling then U.S.-Turkish military ties “will never be the same again.”
Before the Foreign Affairs committee voted on the resolution, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, along with all eight other living Secretaries of State called on the resolution to be rejected. However, committee Democrats did not listen as they blasted one of our strongest allies in the war in Iraq for a 90-year-old crime that the nation of Turkey never committed. It’s amazing that leading Democrats criticize President Bush for losing America allies while they turn around and lambaste a crucial ally.
But what do Democrats have to gain by pushing through this terrible resolution? Democratic House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, is a congresswoman from San Francisco. In her district are many wealthy Armenians. The left-leaning, Huffington Post believes that Pelosi is pandering to the Armenians from whom she hopes to receive large donations. I sure hope the money she receives from a handful of Armenians will be worth the important ally we’re losing in Turkey.
To soothe relations with the Turkish government, President Bush has sent two top U.S. officials, one from the state and defense departments, over to Turkey. But there is obvious anger between the President and the Speaker. Just in the past 6 months, Speaker Pelosi has twice tried to obstruct the President’s foreign policy. The first time, was in April when Nancy Pelosi made a formal trip to Syria to meet with their leader. Now she is leading resolutions to condemn Turkey. It is unprecedented that a Speaker of the House would attempt to override a President’s foreign policy.
But what really gets me is the obvious stupidity of every single person in Congress that voted for this non-binding resolution. It is insane to condemn a country that is a huge ally in the war you’re fighting, and that also houses your nation’s military personnel. In World War II, we aligned ourselves with the Soviet Union when we fought Nazi Germany. We hated the Soviet Union almost as much as we hated Hitler. Americans did not approve of the harsh way that Stalin ruled, or the millions of innocents that he killed. But when we were fighting that war we didn’t have Congressmen and women condemning the Soviet Union. Instead we supported them, and we fought alongside them.
Like the Ottoman Empire which massacred Armenians they believed might be helping Russia, whom they were at war with; America has also fallen prey to war-time faults. During World War II, Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sent all Japanese-Americans to concentration … I mean internment … camps out west. Why? For the exact same reason the Turks in the Ottoman Empire did. Because we were at war, and we felt that Japanese-Americans were helping the enemy. While America didn’t commit a genocide like the Ottoman Empire, we still robbed Japanese-Americans of their liberty and forced them to live in sub-standard conditions because of their race. Apparently congress hasn’t learned that those in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks.
By passing this resolution, Congressional Democrats are: threatening the safety of American military stationed in Turkey, potentially ending an important alliance with Turkey, and threatening supply routes and use of bases in Turkey. All for passing a meaningless resolution that means nothing more than the paper it is written on. I hope Speaker Pelosi is proud of the mess she made.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 18 2007. Filed under Opinion.
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