Neal, just by saying Kurdistan you have made veins bulge out of a lot of Turkish heads and necks.
The Armenian Genocide topic is being used by the Dems as a way of impeding the current Anti-Jihad War and harming President Bush. The Turks are just collateral damage.
This doesn't fit into a neat, tidy column. Congress is commemorating the massacre of Orthodox Christians by Muslims -- something you'd think, from that bare description, FReepers would get behind.
But in the real world, we need our allies. Muslim allies. While I firmly believe that there was a massacre of Arenians by the Ottomans, and that genocide is the proper term; while I believe that the Turkish government is wrong in not only denying the genocide, but punishing writers and historians who acknowledge it -- Turkey is the closest thing the Muslim world has to a secular democracy, and second place isn't close. If Iraq were Turkey, we wouldn't have to be there.
What Congress is doing with this resolution isn't just symbolism without substance, it's symbolism that is actively hostile to substantive policy goals. Yes, I believe there was a genocide, and yes, I believe it should be called by that name. As it is, by most historians and journalists. But why Congress, and why now? If it hasn't been an urgent matter for the first 90+ years, why not let that sleeping dog lie a while longer?