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| Jules Crittenden on the Armenian genocide resolution |
| 2007-10-13 |
| Sticky issue. Bad time to be making principled, entirely justified semantic arguments about the events of 90 years ago. Especially considering the nature of many regimes past and present with which, for purposes of expediency in matters of more imminent concern, we have associated ourselves. Advice to Congress: Drop it. Listen to Holocaust survivor/resolution backer Lantos, the committee chairman, when he counseled against jeopardizing U.S. interests on a point of history at this particular point in history, before his emotions or something got the better of him and he voted for it. The point is made. Find some quiet ways to lean on Turkey. Tomorrow's another day. Advice to Turkey. Grow up. You like to consider yourself a modern nation. You want to be considered a European nation. In fits and starts, a little academic discussion is allowed, and then trials are held for "offending Turkishness" and critics are murdered. Considering the record, "offending Turkishness" starts to look more like a virtue than a crime. Turkey could change that in a moment. The Armenian genocide as an act of mass killing by the Turkish state is in fact well-established and indisputable. A quick summation of the above here. Turkey can join the company of modern nations such as Germany, which has faced up to its wretched, murderous past. Such as the United States, which has going back decades now has recognized and attempted to atone in word, deed, law and government funds for the abuses of the past. Bent over backwards. So many others, impossible to name them all. Some have done a better job than others acknowledging and acting on the past. But they all have histories. Britain, France and Belgium. Australia. Italy. Spain. Russia. Rwanda. Erstwhile Turkish colony Serbia, whose mass slaughter is barely in the rearview but eager to shed its pariah status, has taken some token steps toward cooperation with war crimes prosecutors. Japan, still arguing over the details. Maybe not quite so vociferously as Turkey. Pakistan and India, both with tortured, bloody intertwined histories they aren't quite done sorting out. The list is just too long. Burma, Indonesia, big, active issues. Among those most actively pressing their agendas, Sudan, Iran, China probably stand out as the greatest example of nations still headed in the wrong direction, re history. That's a sordid list. Get off it. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #1 Interest groups have been promoting this resolution for 40 years. Anyone care to guess why the Dems are pursuing this now? |
| Posted by: SR-71 2007-10-13 12:32 |