Raw Story, MA
Oct 12 2007

Daily Show: US forgets past atrocities in exchange for help in the
war on terror

David Edwards and Muriel Kane

Published: Friday October 12, 2007

The Daily Show on Thursday took up President Bush’s promise to veto
a non-binding Congressional resolution condemning the Armenian
Genocide. "This resolution is not the right response to these
historic mass killings," Bush stated.

"What is the right response to historic mass killings?" asked
Stewart. "Historic mass flowers?"

"To be fair," Stewart went on, "Bush is but the latest in a long line
of presidents to placate Turkey by downplaying the whole Death of 1.5
Million Armenians thing. But this is a particularly delicate time."

He then played a clip of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying,
"The passage of this resolution at this time would indeed be very
problematic for everything that we are trying to do in the Middle
East."

"Question," said Stewart, raising his hand like a reporter at a news
conference. "Uh, what are we trying to do in the Middle East?"

Stewart then turned to "senior Armeniologist" Aasif Mandvi, who told
him, "I think the message here is clear. You help us with the war on
terror. We’ll see what we can do about your past."

"It’s not a bad deal, actually," Mandvi continued. "When Spain joined
the coalition, they were able to get their Inquisition downgraded to
a casual Q&A."

Mandvi told Stewart that Turkey really might withdraw its support for
the Iraq War over the resolution. "If Congress had known the bill
they had drafted would have real-world consequences, they’d never
have let it get this far," he stated. "The last thing this Congress
wants is to do anything that might impact policy — or people — or
things."

Stewart and Mandvi further noted that Congress has formally
apologized to Japanese-Americans for the World War II internment
camps and to Hawaii for overthrowing its queen. But slavery and
Indian genocide, not so much.

The following video is from Comedy Central’s The Daily Show,
broadcast on October 11, 2007.

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