Houston Chronicle, TX
Oct 18-24 2007

Pelosi and the Turkey problem

By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

There are three relevant questions concerning the Armenian genocide.

(a) Did it happen?

(b) Should the U.S. House of Representatives be expressing itself on
this now?

(c) Was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s determination to bring this to a
vote, knowing that it risked provoking Turkey into withdrawing
crucial assistance to American soldiers in Iraq, a conscious
(columnist Thomas Sowell) or unconscious (blogger Mickey Kaus)
attempt to sabotage the U.S. war effort?

The answers are:

(a) Yes, unequivocally.

(b) No, unequivocally.

(c) God only knows.

That between 1 million and 1.5 million Armenians were brutally and
systematically massacred starting in 1915 in a deliberate genocidal
campaign is a matter of simple historical record. If you really want
to deepen and broaden awareness of that historical record, you should
support the establishment of the Armenian Genocide Museum and
Memorial in Washington, D.C. But to pass a declarative resolution in
the House of Representatives in the middle of a war in which we are
inordinately dependent on Turkey is the height of irresponsibility.

The atrocities happened 90 years ago. Not a single living Turk under
the age of 102 is in any way culpable. Even Mesrob Mutafyan,
patriarch of the Armenian community in Turkey, has stated that his
community is opposed to the resolution, correctly calling it the
result of domestic American politics.

Turkey is already massing troops near the Iraq border, threatening a
campaign against Kurdish rebels that could destabilize the one stable
front in Iraq. The same House of Representatives that has been
complaining loudly about the lack of armored vehicles for our troops
is blithely jeopardizing relations with the country through which 95
percent of the new heavily armored vehicles are now transiting on the
way to saving American lives in Iraq.

And for what? To feel morally clean?

How does this work? Pelosi says: "Genocide still exists, and we saw
it in Rwanda; we see it now in Darfur." Precisely. And what exactly
is she doing about Darfur? Nothing. Pronouncing yourself on a
genocide committed 90 years ago by an empire that no longer exists is
Pelosi’s demonstration of seriousness about existing, ongoing
genocide?

Indeed, the Democratic Party she’s leading in the House has been
trying for months to force a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq that
could very well lead to genocidal civil war. This prospect has
apparently not deterred her in the least.

"Friends don’t let friends commit crimes against humanity," explained
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., a member of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee that passed the Armenian genocide resolution. This must
rank among the most stupid statements ever uttered by a member of
Congress, admittedly a very high bar.

Does Smith know anything about the history of the Armenian genocide?
Of the role played by Henry Morgenthau? As U.S. ambassador to the
Ottoman Empire, Morgenthau tried desperately to intervene on behalf
of the Armenians. It was his consular officials deep within Turkey
who (together with missionaries) brought out news of the genocide.
And it was Morgenthau who helped tell the world about it in his
writings. Near East Relief, the U.S. charity strongly backed by
President Wilson and the Congress, raised and distributed an
astonishing $117 million in food, clothing and other vital assistance
that, wrote historian Howard Sachar, "quite literally kept an entire
nation alive."

So much for the U.S. letting friends commit crimes against humanity.
And at the time, the Ottomans were not friends. They were an enemy
power in World War I, allied with Germany. Now the Turks are indeed
friends, giving us indispensable logistical help in our war against
today’s premier perpetrators of crimes against humanity – al-Qaida in
Iraq and Afghanistan. Friends don’t gratuitously antagonize friends
who are helping fight the world’s foremost war criminals.

So why has Pelosi been so committed to bringing this resolution to
the floor? (At least until a revolt within her party and the prospect
of defeat caused her to waver.) Because she is deeply unserious about
foreign policy. This little stunt gets added to the ledger: first,
her visit to Syria, which did nothing but give legitimacy to Bashar
al-Assad, who continues to be engaged in the systematic murder of
pro-Western Lebanese members of parliament; then, her letter to Costa
Rica’s ambassador, just nine days before a national referendum,
aiding and abetting opponents of a very important free-trade
agreement with the United States.

Is the Armenian resolution her way of unconsciously sabotaging the
U.S. war effort, after she had failed to stop it by more direct
means? I leave that question to psychiatry.

Instead, I fall back on Krauthammer’s razor (with apologies to
Occam): In explaining any puzzling Washington phenomenon, always
choose stupidity over conspiracy, incompetence over cunning. Anything
else gives them too much credit.

Krauthammer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist based in
Washington, D.C. (letters@charleskrauthammer.com )

tlook/5226331.html