WASHINGTON (CNN) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that she intends to move ahead with a vote on a resolution that labels the deaths of more than a million Armenians during World War I as genocide.The resolution has strained U.S. relations with Turkey and drawn criticism from the Bush administration. "This resolution is one that is consistent with what our government has always said about ... what happened at that time," Pelosi said on ABC's "This Week."
And it's critical and I do mean critical
When asked about criticism that it could harm relations with Turkey, a key ally in the war in Iraq and a fellow member of NATO, Pelosi said, "There's never been a good time," adding that it is important to pass the resolution now "because many of the survivors are very old."
There's never a good time, but some times are worse than others.
"When I came to Congress 20 years ago, it wasn't the right time because of the Soviet Union. Then that fell, and then it wasn't the right time because of the Gulf War One. And then it wasn't the right time because of overflights of Iraq. And now it's not the right time because of Gulf War Two.
Oh, I'm sure you could have found a point or two in there that you could have hurled this insult at a nation too proud to want to acknowledge this and willing to retaliate somehow to prove it.
"And, again, the survivors of the Armenian genocide are not going to be with us."
Neither will we if you keep things up. But who's counting?
| The survivors of countless genocides that occurred throughout human history are no longer with us, and we're not passing resolutions about them. But if Nancy wants to do something positive about responding to a genocide, she could praise George W. Bush for stopping Saddam's genocidal rule in Iraq. But I guess the "time isn't right" for that one either. |
Turkey's top general warned Sunday that ties with the United States will be irreversibly damaged if Congress passes the resolution, The Associated Press reported. Turkey has recalled its ambassador from Washington for consultations and warned of cuts in logistical support to the United States over the issue. The recall is only for a limited period of time, said a U.S. State Department official who talked to the ambassador.
Yeah, she knows. And is counting on it.
| The Turks aren't handling this well, not that one would expect them to. They could have said, look, this happened during a World War in the time of our predecessors, the Ottomans. Of course we deplore genocide as much as the next person. And that would have been that. Instead, they've allowed their pride to think for them. |
The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 27-21 Wednesday to approve the nonbinding measure, which declares the deportation of nearly 2 million Armenians from the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923 was "systematic" and "deliberate," amounting to "genocide." The deportations led to the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million people. But Sunday, Pelosi stood by her previous assertion that the measure would be taken to a full vote if it passed the committee.
Newly installed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, tried to calm tensions by phoning his Turkish counterpart shortly after Wednesday's vote.
"What can we do? She's an idiot but SF voted her in."
Mullen told Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, Turkey's chief of staff, that the Pentagon is working hard to inform Congress of what the military implications might be if the Turks were to respond by cutting off U.S. access to the air base at Incirlik in Turkey. Seventy percent of U.S. air cargo bound for Iraq passes over or through Turkey.
| Say, you don't suppose Nancy is using the resolution as a back-door attempt to stop our good work in Iraq, do you? |
Then what?
| Then they can feel good about themselves, particularly since the Turks are bellowing Dire Revenge™. They'll pat themselves on the back and say that they avenged the spirits of their great-great-grandparents, or some such. They'll have perpetuated the millenium-long grudge match for another generation. And they'll call themselves Americans. |
| The latter is true, the former is false, and the Turks should just say so and be done with it. Kinda hard to keep flogging the horse once you've said, "gee, you're right, we're sorry about what people did ninty years ago." |
Yeah, but Pelosi wants libs to be able to feel good about something, even if it involves shooting her country in the foot.
"But I don't think the Congress passing this resolution is a good idea at any point. But particularly not a good idea when Turkey is cooperating with us in many ways, which ensures greater safety for our soldiers."
| It's a deliberate stick in the eye, calculated to inflame and perhaps calculated to cause us problems in Iraq. Keep your eye on the narrative here, folks ... |
Personally, I don't think this has a chance in hades. The Donks have really outdone themselves this time and if this actually passes and gets onto peoples' radar the fallout would only further reveal predatory liberal duplicity and reckless attempts to grab power. Or cluelessness. Uh oh . . . .
Even if this is legitimate, I can't imagine what she is trying to prove and to whom. She won't buy enough votes to stick in her