Posted on 10/15/2007 1:27:52 PM PDT by Dane
October 15, 2007 11:45 AM
Grandstanding Has Consequences It’s amateur hour in Congress.
By Michael Rubin
Last week, a congressional committee passed a resolution condemning the Armenian genocide. There is no doubt that up to a million Armenians died during World War I, although historians still debate whether their deaths constitute deliberate genocide or are collateral casualties of war.
House Democrats brought the resolution to a vote despite entreaties from the White House to postpone it. For Congress, though, the resolution was less about rectifying history than grandstanding. House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Lantos (D., Cal.) called a vote. It passed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) pooh-poohed the episode. This was not about Turkey, she explained, but rather “about the Ottoman Empire.” Unclear, though, is why congressional Democrats felt the urgent need to condemn an entity that hasn’t existed for 85 years.
Unfortunately, grandstanding has consequences. Turkey recalled its ambassador; and now the State Department finds itself now devoid of leverage to prevent a Turkish incursion into Iraq to fight Kurdish terrorists. Pelosi’s posturing has put U.S. use of the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey to supply our forces both in Afghanistan and Iraq in jeopardy.
If only the Armenian Genocide resolution was an isolated event. It’s amateur hour in Congress. The efforts of Sen. Joseph Biden (D., Del.) to divide Iraq on ethnic and religious grounds threaten to spark civil war just as U.S. servicemen make inroads in preventing it. Biden’s motivation may be to garner media attention. He has succeeded. The problem, though, his statements get more airtime in Iran and Iraq, where revolutionary mullahs use his pronouncements to convince Iraqis that U.S. forces seek to destroy Iraq rather than rebuild it.
The list goes on. In May 2006, Rep. Jack Murtha (D., Pa.) said that U.S. Marines executed Iraqis “in cold blood.” Overnight, his clip became an Al-Jazeera favorite. Islamist terrorists used Murtha’s words to justify their murder of Americans. Now, a court martial has dismissed murder charges against the servicemen Murtha accused; Murtha has yet to apologize.
Other congressmen see intelligence briefings as an ala carte menu for chest-thumbing leaks than part of confidential oversight duties. Every leak splashed across a New York Times undercuts the war on terror.
Junkets also have a cost. Basking in the glow of Pelosi’s headline-garnering visit to Damascus — again in contravention of a State Department request — Syrian leader Bashar al-Asad upgraded his support for Hezbollah and his nuclear dealings with North Korea.
The resolution, while important to the Armenian-American community — perhaps less so to Armenians living in Armenia who worry much more about economic development — also raises a host of questions about how Congress picks and chooses which atrocities to weigh in on. While Condoleezza Rice seeks to bring Beijing on board with Iran sanctions — a Herculean if not impossible task — will the House Foreign Affairs Committee condemn Beijing for the millions who perished during the Cultural Revolution? Their murders — politically motivated and, as far as the historical record is concerned, far more deliberate and coordinated — also occurred much more recently. Perhaps the House Foreign Affairs Committee will also act to bring Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Masud Barzani to justice for ordering the disappearance and summary executions of perhaps 3,000 Kurds during the 1994-1997 Kurdish civil war. This is not to suggest that such cases should not be pursued. But, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is not the place to pursue such historical investigations; universities are.
In an election season, Pelosi, Biden, and Murtha, may have no greater goal than to garner headlines, but U.S. servicemen fighting terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan do. Countering proliferation and fighting terrorism will dominate diplomacy regardless of who next occupies the White House. There’s no time for amateur hour. As U.S. troops continue to sacrifice to defend U.S. national security, it is unfortunate that headline seeking congressmen seek to make their job that much harder.
— Michael Rubin, editor of the Middle East Quarterly, is resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
Incredible that this country has subjected itself to this flagrant and blatant abuse of power and authority, all for political gain alone... the efforts and objectives of one party have become so obvious they leave no doubt whose side they have chosen, at any cost.
Party on!
Their only objective is to hurt our country so their base will vote for them!
The left is loony. The current Turks had nothing to do with the Armenian genocide almost A CENTURY AGO!!!!
How about a resolution against the Mongolia for sacking and pillaging the known world in the 13th century??
Oh, wait, Mongolia isn’t an ally in the war on terror as are the Turks. If Mongolia were an ally, the left would go out of their way to pi$$ them off.
for your consideration
Congressman Andrew May all over again.
This is no amateur mistake, the Dummies know exactly what they’re doing and look forward to the negative consequences on the war effort.
The Congressional Democrats are traitors, pure and simple.
The left is hell-bent on destroying this country. It is obvious to me that that is their ultimate goal. They hate the USA. They hate Christianity. They hate the US Armed Forces. They hate everything that makes the USA great. But saddest of all, if you look closely, you will see they hate themselves.
The only logical conclusion to a person who undermines their own protection at a physical level, is either stupidity or suicidal tendencies, or both. It just depends on which one your talking to.
Therefore they have ZERO accountability.
And ZERO discipline.
Democrats have ZERO to fear.
THAT is dangerous.
We are faring far better against the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan than the enemy (dems) within.
Democrats only take a clear position on subjects like this when history has made it safe to do so. They were the pro-choice party with respect to slavery. And I notice they're pretty mum about Darfur....
And in this case, when it po's one of our crucial allies and endangers supplies for our troops, it's a bonus!
A great many Turks, Kurds, Circassians and others also died in eastern Turkey during and after WWI.
I would love to see a statistical analysis of the differential death rates among these groups during the period.
Unfortunately, the records are not accurate enough to do such an analysis.
Nobody who has studied the later Ottoman Empire would take seriously the idea that they could orchestrate a true genocide like the Nazis did. The Ottomans were not efficient enough, and did not have adequate control over the population.
What happened was probably as much local tribesmen, especially our present good friends the Kurds, taking the opportunity to pillage, rape, murder and burn in their age-old fashion; as it was an organized state-sponsored act of planned genocide.
I think you’re right. It’s a back-door effort to undermine US policy in Iraq (”We can’t continue the war, we don’t have the bases in Turkey to provide logistical support.”) The ‘Rats couldn’t win an up-or-down vote on resolutions to end the US involvement in Iraq, so this is a guerrilla-style attempt to cut the support lifeline. Plus it gives them political cover, plausible deniability. (”It wasn’t our intent to threaten the survivability of our forces in the field, we were just condemning genocide.”). The media will parrot the ‘Rat line and the sheeple will swallow it, leaving US forces way out on the end of a very long limb.
You are correct. The Ottomans who launched the Armenian genocide were deposed with the Axis defeat in World War I. The current Turkish government is not their heirs. The current ChiCom government, however, are not only the heirs but the beneficiaries of the 90 million or so butchered in their consolidation of power.
I think you are being needlessly judgemental.
I think it is sufficient that they are playing for votes and that the damage to the country is incidental, rather than by design.
We’ll always have sheeple, but most of them have learned that they can’t trust the MSM or the Dummies. Most have identified the nation’s traitors for what they are.
Uh griddy, consequences have actions, and your hero nancy pelosi has decided to damn the consequenes, and those consequences will have actions on US troops.
BTW, a question, does nancy pelosi's boots taste like licorice?
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