OBAMA RENEGS ON ANOTHER CAMPAIGN PROMISE
By Jamal Washington
Fort Liberty
-another-campaign-promise.html
May 2 2010
Politics
Candidate Obama and President Obama don’t have very much in common.
Obama has broken campaign promises regarding tax increases,
earmarks for pork barrel projects, forced health insurance,
government transparency, spending cuts, and hiring corporate shills
as administration heavies. He recently added yet another entry to
his long and growing list of mind-bending reversals.
On 19 January 2008, candidate Obama vowed "I will recognize the
Armenian Genocide." He went on to say "I also share with Armenian
Americans — so many of whom are descended from genocide survivors —
a principled commitment to commemorating and ending genocide. That
starts with acknowledging the tragic instances of genocide in world
history. As a U.S. senator, I have stood with the Armenian American
community in calling for Turkey’s acknowledgment of the Armenian
Genocide."
That seems pretty clear. There is no wiggle room in those statements.
Instead of wiggling, Obama simply lied. He has now refused on multiple
occasions to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.
Ken Hachikian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of
America, condemned President Obama’s lack of honesty, "Today we
join with Armenians in the United States and around the world in
voicing our sharp disappointment with the president’s failure to
properly condemn and commemorate the Armenian Genocide. Sadly, for
the U.S. and worldwide efforts to end the cycle of genocide, he made
the wrong choice, allowing Turkey to tighten its gag-rule on American
genocide policy."
The Armenian Genocide was a deliberate and systematic destruction of
the Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire during and just after WWI.
It was implemented through government policies of wholesale massacres
and mass deportations, with the deportations consisting of forced
marches under conditions designed to cause the death of the deportees.
The total number of Armenian deaths is estimated to have been between
one and one and a half million individuals.