The Patriot-News – PennLive.com, PA
Oct 19 2007
House playing with fire in Turkish resolution that could jeopardize
American troops in Iraq
Friday, October 19, 2007
There’s little question that in the waning days of the Ottoman
Empire, Ottoman Turks slaughtered Armenian refugees in mass numbers
in one of history’s great outrages.
But 92 years later, with the killers likely all dead, what would be
the point of a resolution from the U.S. House of Representatives
condemning the slaughter as "genocide"?
One effect of such a resolution already has been to aggravate
officials in the Republic of Turkey, one of America’s few longtime
Middle Eastern allies.
Another might be to motivate the Turks to invade northern Iraq — the
most stable part of that war-torn country — to quell the Kurdish
rebellion along its border that has taken thousands of Turkish lives
over the last few decades. Turkey’s parliament on Wednesday
authorized such action.
The congressional resolution to condemn Turkey for this long-ago
outrage is a clear threat to U.S. foreign policy, as well as to our
fighting men and women, who are dependent on supplies that flow
through Turkey, including 70 percent of all U.S. air cargo headed for
Iraq.
This is in no way intended to downplay the enormity of the crime
against the Armenians in 1915. But surely those who seek to
officially condemn it understand that this proposed resolution could
imperil the U.S. war effort in Iraq, thus putting Americans’ lives in
greater jeopardy.
Out here in the hinterlands, where even opponents of the war are
concerned for the safety of our forces in Iraq, this resolution looks
like more than simple appeasement of a constituency. This looks very
much like a side-door effort to force the administration’s hand on
withdrawing troops from Iraq.
Wisely, several influential Democrats, including Pennsylvania’s Rep.
John Murtha of Johnstown, have abandoned support for this resolution
and are urging that it be put on the shelf. These Democrats, at
least, understand that playing with fire — and, realistically, the
lives of U.S. troops in Iraq — would be likely to earn their party a
political reward far different, and far less agreeable, than the one
they seek.
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
