COLUMN: BRINGING UP PAST ISSUES FOR MODERN DAY MANIPULATION
Dan Hemp, CT Regular Columnist

Virginia Tech Collegiate Times Online Edition, VA
Oct 17 2007

The democrats are at it again. In another attempt to undermine our
effort in Iraq, they most recently brought up an issue that is almost
a century old in order to sever our ties with one of our most valued
allies in the war on terror.

Because they cannot get a resolution passed in Congress that would
set a concrete date for the withdrawal of our troops, they have now
resorted to a more indirect approach to weaken our position in the war.

Throughout the war, Turkey has been a reluctant but eventually vital
ally in terms of American success. Huge portions of our military
supplies go through Incirlik Air Base, near Adana, Turkey.

Apparently, democrats in Congress would rather not see our troops
receive their supplies through Turkey.

For reasons that can only be explained by a clear lack of support
for the military, House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), brought
a non-binding resolution to the floor earlier this month that would
label the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and
1923 as genocide. For years, the Turkish government has been sensitive
of the issue and has had nothing but remorse for what happened almost
a century ago. In fact, resolutions similar to Pelosi’s were passed
in 1975 and 1984, and President Ronald Reagan publicly labeled the
incident as genocide. Nevertheless, Pelosi and the democrats have
brought this issue to the table now for other reasons.

Unfortunately, the timing of this couldn’t be worse. Besides being
our main supply line into Iraq, Turkey is also engaged in a struggle
with Kurdish terrorist forces in Northern Iraq and Southern Turkey.

And right now, our government is trying to convince the Turkish
parliament to refrain from attacking them. But with these recent
developments, their government may begin to mobilize against the
terrorists. In fact, Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
has insinuated that he might take action to disallow our forces from
using Turkey’s military bases in the future.

To any unbiased observer, this effort by the democrats to agitate
one of our most essential allies in the war is nothing more than an
indirect way to accomplish what they can’t achieve directly.

Undeniably, they do not want us to succeed in Iraq, and our presence
there has to be ended quickly in order for them to satisfy their
extreme left-wing base.

Because we are seeing signs of victory in Iraq, the democratic
leadership has to do everything it can to circumvent our
achievements. In the past, it has verbally demoralized our troops
time and again. They have even resorted to rejecting the report on
progress in Iraq submitted by Gen. David Petraeus before he even had
the chance to speak to Congress about it. But never have they lowered
themselves to the level of digging up this 100-year-old issue in order
to weaken our relationship with an ally. Clearly, it is inconceivable
how anyone in his or her right mind could see these politicians as
anything but disloyal and absolutely ungrateful toward our military.

Not surprisingly, most of the media has gone along with the plan by
reporting that it makes sense to bring the issue up now because of
the recent events in Darfur and Myanmar. But undoubtedly, there are
other motivating factors as to why this is the most important business
facing Congress right now. Instead of condemning the current happenings
in those countries, they are denouncing actions that took place in the
1920s. Without question, this shows just exactly where the democrats’
priorities lie.

Once again, this is nothing new coming from democrats in Congress.

There have been countless incidents where they continue to prove just
how incompetent and misguided they are. Without question, this most
recent occurrence just adds to the list. Hopefully when historians
look back at this point in our history, they will receive the harsh
criticism that they most certainly deserve.

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