Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Since when do liberals care about genocide?

Well, after a really long absence, I'm back. I thought that work had calmed down enough in February to allow me to get back to blogging. Wow, was I wrong. But I've decided that I will try to post at least one blog a week. Shouldn't be too hard, right?

Not too long ago there was an attempt by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to pass a resolution labeling the killing of Armenians in Turkey a century ago as genocide. On the surface, this would seem like a good thing, right? Liberals recognizing the serious nature of genocide? There's a first time for everything, I guess.

But their timing, as well as their track record, casts serious doubt on the motives behind this resolution. So far, the Democratic-led congress has been incapable of making a dent in our war efforts, and they're growing desperate. Their approval rating is 11%, due to their failure at ending "Bush's war". And their complete unwillingness to even talk about current, active genocidal situations like Darfur makes one doubt their sincerity. So why would Pelosi be pushing such a resolution?

Turkey is our only real Muslim ally in the Middle East. They have given us military fly-over permission as well as other assistance in Iraq. Without their cooperation, this war would be vastly more difficult. Turkey has always been a bit touchy on the whole genocide thing. Ottoman Turks took it upon themselves a century ago to slaughter an estimated 100,000 Armenian civilians. Sure sounds like genocide, but Turkey insists that the tragedy was due to civil unrest, and that the numbers are smaller. Regardless, present day Turkey is not the Ottoman Empire. The current Turkish government is not culpable for attrocities of the past. That's not to say that such things shouldn't be remembered. Just like slavery in America, we should always remember, but present day Americans are not responsible for it. Of course, liberals try to pin that on us too.

Democrats and liberals don't have a very good reputation for being concerned with the attrocities commited in other countries. They are completely ambivalent in regards to the slaughter in Darfur, or the human rights violations in North Korea and Iran. They could care less about the oppression of Cuba or the rampant beheadings in Saudi Arabia. But suddenly they've got their panties in a twist about a possible genocide a hundred years ago? You might be able to chalk it up to the typical liberal pattern of jumping on a cause that has absolutely no impact on anything rather than actually getting their hands dirty with something that matters. But I doubt it.

This resolution was a deliberate attempt at destabilizing our diplomatic relationship with Turkey in the hopes that they would withdraw their logistic cooperation in Iraq. Simply suggesting the resolution was enough to make Turkey recall its U.S. ambassador. Luckily, the effort was just as impotent as everything else this congress has tried to do. Pelosi couldn't scrape up enough support to put it through, and then decided to back off herself. Even Rep. John Murtha voiced his opinion that the resolution was poorly timed and undermined our relationship with a valued ally.

You would think that the Democrats would have jumped all over a chance to possibly hinder our efforts in Iraq. The fact that they didn't just goes to show how underhanded and poorly thought out this resolution was. Are Democrats so panicked about ending this war that they are willing to alienate one of our most important allies to do it?

It makes you wonder what other bridges they'd be willing to burn to end the war in Iraq. Just how much damage are they prepared to do to this country in order to secure our defeat? As if the fallout from a withdrawal of U.S. troops wouldn't be bad enough, now they want to make sure we have no friends left when it all hits the fan.

We need all the allies we can get right now. We shouldn't be slapping the few we already have in the face. Perhaps one day we will have a chance to sort out history and figure out what really happened in Turkey a century ago. Now is not the time.