Dar Al-Hayat, Lebanon
Oct 13 2007

Congress, "the Council of Delegates," and the Sublime Porte

Mostafa Zein Al-Hayat – 13/10/07//

The Bush Administration is opposed to a draft resolution of Congress
that considers the massacres of the Armenians in the year 1915 to be
genocide. The reasons for the opposition are many. Rice summarizes
them by saying that the draft resolution is not the appropriate
response to this historical massacre. "It will provoke Turkey, our
ally in NATO, and it will make Turkey retreat from its cooperation
with us in Iraq. Passage of the draft resolution at this time will
hinder everything that we are trying to achieve in the Middle East."
As for the minister of defense, Robert Gates, he was clearer. He said
that "Seventy percent of our military shipments to Iraq, and
one-third of the fuel that we consume there, come through Turkey. The
resolution makes reaching our air bases and our logistical supply
lines dangerous, especially if our expectations turn out to be
correct and the Turkish response is violent."
The timing is the mistake then, and timing here means that the White
House needs Turkey now. It dos not want to provoke it. Its NATO ally
is helping it to exit the Iraqi quagmire, and it is helping it in
passing its Middle Eastern plans. It is going to need it more if it
decides to attack Iran, or to exert pressure on Syria, or to
participate, along with the moderates, in finding a settlement to the
Palestinian question, in addition to the fact that Turkey is an
Islamic model of democracy, and evidence that the current war and the
next one are not against the Muslims.
These are the administration’s considerations. As for Congress’s
considerations, they are different. The eyes of the Democrats are on
the presidency. They want to win the powerful Armenian lobby to their
side in the elections. The excuse of the need for Turkey in Iraq does
not convince them. The failure there has occurred. Ankara helped to
delay announcing the failure, or it did not help. The Middle East
Conference (festival) is a caricature of previous conferences. It
will not achieve anything. However, there is no harm in holding the
conference to show Bush’s weakness and his actual size, domestically
and abroad. The reality is that historical truth and the destiny of
peoples is the last thing that the ruling class in America is
interested in. Every issue is susceptible to political consumption,
from the Holocaust to the Israeli massacres of the Palestinians, to
the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York, to the dangers that
are going to result from new wars. In the old-new imperialist game,
the White House wants to run the world as it wishes for the sake of
the American interest. The legislators have other plans to realize
this interest. The emperor leads the world and the Congress
legislates for the states that are attached to the metropolis. It
decides to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem (a non-binding
resolution). It legislates holding Syria accountable and liberating
Lebanon. It imposes sanctions on Iran. It decides to partition Iraq.
It takes the place of the peoples in deciding their fate. Congress is
like the "Council of Delegates" in the days of the Sultanate. The
White House is like the Sublime Porte during the Middle Ages.
Washington is like Istanbul. It calls for loyalty. It rewards the
loyalists. It deposes those who are insubordinate. It punishes those
who are rebellious. It launches wars to discipline regimes and
peoples. It is the story of classical imperialism that is incarnated
before us, every day, and everywhere. As for the Armenian butcheries,
they are, with respect to it, but a story. It reads it when it wishes
to, and it conceals it when it wishes to.

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress