SUPPORT FOR RESOLUTION HR106 DECREASING
by Michael van der Galiën

The Van Der Galiën Gazette, Netherlands
Oct 17 2007

Shortly after the House panel approved resolution HR 106, calling the
massacre of Armenians from 1915-1917 ‘genocide,’ the pushback began.

Conservatives noticed that the US is dependent on Turkey for success in
Iraq: if Turkey would decide that the US can’t use Turkey anymore to
supply the troops, etc., it would become incredibly difficult for the
mission in Iraq to succeed, to put it mildly. The Turkish government
was angered and worried by the panel vote and started lobbying against
the resolution. Supporters of the bill suddenly realized that what they
thought would be a quick and easy way to help a fellow Democrat get
reelected realized – because of the reaction of the Turkish government
and the backlash from conservative bloggers and journalists, and the
opposition of eight former US secretaries of state to resolution HR 106
– that they were profoundly mistaken and that things like condemning
a country for committing a genocide may actually have implications
in the real world. Republicans who didn’t quite the understand the
impact approval of this resolution would have changed their mind as
well and today we see the following headline at the New York Times:
"Support Wanes in House for Genocide Vote."

Almost a dozen lawmakers had shifted against the measure over the
last 24 hours, accelerating a sudden exodus that has cast deep doubt
over the measure’s prospects. Some representatives made clear that
they were heeding warnings from the White House, which has called
the measure dangerously provocative, and from the Turkish government,
which has said House passage would prompt Turkey to reconsider its ties
to the United States, including logistical support for the Iraq war.

Until today, the resolution appeared to be on a path to House
passage, with strong support from the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of
California. It was approved last week by the House Foreign Affairs
Committee. But this evening, a group of group of senior House Democrats
had made it known they were planning to ask the leadership to drop
plans for a vote on the measure.

John Murtha worded his opposition to the resolution thusly: "This
happened a long time ago and I don’t know whether it was a massacre
or a genocide; that is beside the point. The point is, we have to
deal with today’s world."

Pelosi and the other main supporters of this resolution made a gigantic
mistake. They miscalculated tremendously. Nancy Pelosi has once again
shown that she knows partisan politics, but that she doesn’t know a
whole lot about foreign affairs.

port-for-resolution-hr106-decreasing/

–Boundary_ (ID_d953UzZZv1BBWEUkSYxXYA)–