THANKS, DEMOCRATS! OIL PRICE RISES WITH US-TURK TENSIONS
Hot Air, MD
Oct 16 2007
The facts of the Armenia genocide aren’t in dispute. President Reagan
acknowledged the genocide in 1981, so it isn’t as though the US
officially denies that it happened. The wisdom of passing a resolution
about it, 90-some-odd years later, is very debatable. The whole thing
reminds me of President Clinton’s 1998 apology tour of Africa, during
which he apologized for the evils of the distant past while ignoring
more recent evils like the 1994 Rwanda genocide, during which he stood
by in full knowledge of what was going on but said and did nothing
meaningful to stop it. The grandstanding over the past may have made
Clinton personally feel better, but the Rwandan victims were no less
dead. The Democrats may be trading a resolution over a past genocide
for creating an environment that could lead to another genocide in
the immediate future, by making the war in Iraq more difficult to win.
None of the above is likely to gain much traction with the voters,
though. But rising oil prices might.
Oil prices hit a record high, spurred by rising tensions between Turkey
and Iraq, and deteriorating relations between Turkey and the U.S.
Washington sent envoys on a surprise visit to Ankara this weekend,
to urge restraint, as the Turks threaten to attack Kurdish separatists
in Northern Iraq.
Democrat preening increases your pain at the pump.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s top general is warning that the resolution will
strain US-Turkish military ties, ties which were already strained
by Turkey’s failure to allow the 4th ID to enter Iraq via Turkey in
2003, then repaired somewhat by Turkey allowing Incirlik air base to
become a major logistics artery to support the war, and kept strong
by the Turkish military’s secular nature and the joint fight against
terrorism. But Generalissimo Nancy Pelosi is still promising to push
ahead with the resolution anyway.
For its part, the White House is not pressing Pelosi directly but is
lobbying members of Congress individually. Perhaps the strategy there
is to deal with members who aren’t as far to the left as Pelosi and
aren’t as rigidly anti-Bush as she is either. Dealing directly with
her would probably be counterproductive.
Gateway Pundit notes that moves like this one have made the Pelosi
Congress as upopular abroad as it is at home. While I don’t mind
annoying the Chinese over the Dalai Lama (a move that seems to have
Richard Gere’s fingerprints all over it), it’s hard to reach any
conclusion but this: The Democrats in charge of Congress just don’t
know what they’re doing, on any subject or issue, and can’t help
screwing up everything they touch.
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