Posted on 10/16/2007 1:49:26 PM PDT by jazusamo
October 16, 2007
Democrats are split on the value of bringing a controversial Armenian genocide resolution to a floor vote.
Five House Democrats plan to hold a news conference Wednesday to urge their leadership not to bring the resolution to the floor, although the measure passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week with strong Democratic support.
Reps. Alcee Hastings of Florida, John Murtha of Pennsylvania, Robert Wexler of Florida and Steve Cohen and John Tanner, both of Tennessee, will participate in the news conference. They plan to urge House leadership to “reconsider its decision” to bring the Armenian genocide resolution to the floor.
The non-binding resolution would require the president to call the killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians between the years 1915 and 1923 “genocide.”
Turkish officials have said the resolution will harm relations between Turkey and the United States. Turkey acknowledges hundreds of thousands of Armenians died as modern Turkey grew out of the crumbling Ottoman Empire, but Turkish officials contend the killings were part of a civil war and that atrocities were committed on both sides.
Top administration officials have warned Congress that Turkey could respond to the resolution’s passage by blocking access to an airbase critical to the supply of troops in Iraq.
Despite the pushback, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has indicated she would bring the controversial resolution to the floor. California is home to a significant number of Armenian-Americans, including some who came to the United States after fleeing the World War I-era upheaval.
The House has passed similar resolutions in past decades.
President Ronald Reagan also once referred to what happened to Armenians as they were being pushed out of what became eastern Turkey as genocide. During his presidency, however, Bill Clinton also worked to block an Armenian genocide resolution from passing the House.
So...the Dems split against each other on the surge (Brian Baird et al), the candidates quarrell amongst themselves and accuse each other of things, and now the Congressional Dems are split yet again on this Turkey resolution. They are toast in 08.
This resolution is their latest plan to sabotage our efforts in Iraq. They don’t care about condemning genocide, otherwise they would have brought this up awhile ago. I’m sure our enemies really appreciate the Dems’ efforts—at a College Republicans meeting we had some Iraq vets speak to us and one of them said “I swear, I’ve seen more Jack Murtha coverage on al-Jazeera than I have anywhere else in my life!”
“They have us over the proverbial barrel, we need to use their territory. It’s not cowering in fear, no fear involved.”
Actually, it is fear. They need our support far more than we need theirs.
This is so typical of our wimpy government — placate other governments at the expense of doing the right thing.
their=there
Who besides you is saying that the once-great United States is now cowering in fear of Turkey?
I don’t think it wise to invade Turkey. As they did with the 4th ID, when they refused to let us use the access, you have to decide whether you are going to comply with other country’s wishes or not. When dealing with other sovereign nations, you have to comply.
Maybe we weren’t stern enough, who knows, I wasn’t there. But fear is not an issue. Turkey has been a stalwart ally throughout the cold war, allowing NATO bombers to use their territory. They were also allowing us to use their bases to enforce the Iraq no-fly zones. It’s all a game of negotiation, give and take — I don’t think our state department is very good at it, we seem to be doing mostly give and little take.
Yes, I noticed it also.
“But not at this time.”
I’m skeptical because that’s been the line from the government for decades, where, every year they’ve come up with an “excuse.” The Iraq war’s the latest excuse and people again swallow it.
I dunno what the excuses were in decades past, but the Iraq war is a good “excuse” because of the supply routes to our troops in Turkey. If Turkey wasn’t helping us I’d have no problem with the bill coming up now.
“As if the safety and well-being of our troops in Iraq and their mission are such small things which ought not get in the way of pointless Democrat posturing, right?”
No. I don’t think you actually read my post; so I’ll repeat:
Long before the war on terror began, there were always reasons every year for killing a genocide resolution before it gets to the floor of the House. Because of that, I think this latest reason is bogus as well.
“As if the safety and well-being of our troops in Iraq and their mission are such small things which ought not get in the way of pointless Democrat posturing, right?”
No. I don’t think you actually read my post; so I’ll repeat:
Long before the war on terror began, there were always reasons every year for killing a genocide resolution before it got to the floor of Congress for a vote. Because of that, I think this latest reason is bogus as well.
They have us over a barrel? The more we act like that, the more leverage they have over us? Let's see, we give them money, support, we are forcing NATO to take them in, we help them with their trade. And in return for that, when they say "jump," our President says, "How high, Sir?"
Maybe we should demand a little something in return for all we do. It seems like a pretty one-sided relationship. Would you be okay with Japan telling us we had to remove Pearl Harbor from our text books and our country, if we wanted to continue using their land?
So you think if we ignore it, that makes it not true.
to try to harm Bush and his WOT by pushing Turkey to not cooperate so they can blame Bush.
these folks are despicable....much worse than RINOs even
I think the Armenian Lobby should pull it.
They have had more PR on this than in decades.
They are being used like a cheep prostitute and being preyed on over a very dear and emotional issue.
Good points, I agree. From what little I’ve read there’s debate about whether it was truly genocide anyway.
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