The Real Reason Behind H Res 106

Hey folks,

I wanted to talk about this yesterday morning before all the spin, but I had to go. I’m here now. Happy Friday to you.

So the House passed Resolution 106. According to AFP- US lawmakers back Armenian 'genocide' bill by Jitendra Joshi

US lawmakers defied strident warnings by President George W. Bush and Turkey by voting Wednesday to label the Ottoman Empire's World War I massacre of Armenians as genocide.

To cheers and applause from emotional Armenians, including elderly wheelchair-bound survivors, the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee voted for the resolution by 27 votes to 21.

Of course all for a four hour show. But there really is a deeper and darker reason behind it.

Bush and top lieutenants earlier were unusually blunt in attacking the non-binding resolution, warning that it would trigger Turkish reprisals and undermine US efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East.

THAT IS the reason.

The vote "may do grave harm to US-Turkish relations and to US interests in Europe and the Middle East," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"Nor will it improve Turkish-Armenian relations or advance reconciliation among Turks and Armenians over the terrible events of 1915," he said.

The measure is likely to be sent on to a vote in the full Democratic-led House, where a majority has already signed on to the resolution. A parallel measure is in the Senate pipeline.

Bryan Ardouny, executive director of the Armenian Assembly of America, lauded "a historic day" after the committee's vote.

But it really is pointless. Other than for their intended purpose.

"It is long past time for the US government to acknowledge and affirm this horrible chapter of history -- the first genocide of the 20th century and a part of history that we must never forget," he said.

The text says the killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians was a "genocide" that should be acknowledged fully in US foreign policy towards Turkey, along with "the consequences of the failure to realize a just resolution."

While the American-Armenian community celebrated, Turkish President Abdullah Gul denounced the vote as unacceptable and accused the House members of sacrificing US interests to "petty games of domestic politics."

ABSOLUTELY!!!

Turkey's ambassador to Washington, Nabi Sensoy, told AFP the vote was "very disappointing" and called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to refrain from bringing it to a full vote.

He has also been called home. Their plan on the surface, seemed to work.

Sensoy, who has personally lobbied more than 100 House members against the resolution, added that "those who said it won't do any harm, we will have to wait and see."

Bush said the resolution would do "great harm" to ties with Turkey, a Muslim-majority member of NATO whose territory is a crucial transit point for US supplies bound for Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to the Armenians, 1.5 million of their kinsmen were killed from 1915 to 1923 under an Ottoman Empire campaign of deportation and murder that later encouraged Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's Holocaust against the Jews.

THAT depends on WHO you listen to. None of that is FACT. Many Historians disagree with that assessment. Many say that all parties had blood on their hands.

Rejecting the genocide label, Turkey argues that 250,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia during the war.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates also denounced the measure before the hearing, after veiled threats from Ankara that US access to a sprawling air base in southern Turkey could be denied.

THAT IS the reason.

But despite the warnings, the resolution's backers warned the issue could not be ignored as they drew parallels to the Holocaust and the present-day bloodshed in the Sudanese region of Darfur.

"We've been told the timing is bad," Democratic House member Gary Ackerman said in an emotional hearing that lasted nearly four hours. "But the timing was bad for the Armenian people in 1915."

That is complete and utter BS. Not even Bunk. That is complete BS The TIMING is exactly RIGHT, for the LWL and Traitors in Congress, to further their agenda of hindering the troops, attempting to block this President from keeping America safe, and causing us to LOSE the War while Bush is still President. It really is that simple.

Republican Representative Christopher Smith said the resolution was not a slight on modern Turkey, adding: "Friends don't let friends commit crimes against humanity."

{Sigh} Idiot. We are talking about like 115 years ago, one sided “facts,” with no real purpose.

Republican lawmaker Dan Burton, however, said passage of the genocide resolution could endanger US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Which is what they are hoping for.

"We're in the middle of two wars. We have troops out there who are at risk. And we're talking about kicking an ally in the teeth. It is crazy."

That’s why I call them the LWL. By the way, the second war is here at home. For this very country.

Gates said that about 70 percent of all Iraq-bound US air cargo, 95 percent of tough new mine-resistant vehicles and one-third of the military's fuel transit through Turkey.

US commanders "believe, clearly, that access to airfields and to the roads and so on in Turkey would be very much put at risk if this resolution passes and the Turks react as strongly as we believe they will," he said.

Told you. They want to hinder the war effort. Which is ALL they have wanted to do since taking control. One of my favorite Politicians, House Republican Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.), said this.

"Though I respect the opinion of the other side, and join them in expressing my deep-felt condolences to the Armenian people, the resolution we voted on today attempts to reduce a complex historical debate into a one-sided declaration of fault. And in the process, it tries to prove through legislative decree that which has eluded generations of objective historians.

Any historical reading of the breakup of the Ottoman Empire reminds us that there were few clean hands. It also reminds us that its Armenian population was forced to endure tremendous suffering and unspeakable harm. But neither I, nor anyone sitting on this panel, is sufficiently expert on this issue to label what happened more than 90 years ago a genocide. This is a debate for international historians, not members of the U.S. Congress.”

YES!!

"Though some will say this resolution is purely symbolic, I believe the consequences that would follow its passage are as real as they are severe. I've visited the Incirlik Air Force Base in southern Turkey, which the U.S. military uses at the permission of the Turkish government. I understand the critically important role that base plays when it comes to supplying our troops in Iraq. And I also understand the tense situation on the Turkish-Iraqi Kurdish border.

Now is not the time to undermine our relationship with Turkey -- especially when doing so may actually undermine the very process of reconciliation between the Turks and Armenians we all have worked so hard to support. I would hope the speaker seriously considers the foreign policy implications of this resolution before bringing it to the House floor."

As a matter of fact, according to a letter written to Speaker Pelosi by the eight living former U.S. secretaries of state, Republicans and Democrats, passage of the Armenian Genocide resolution would harm our foreign policy objectives to promote reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia. The letter also strongly urges the speaker not to bring the resolution to the House floor.

Reuters puts it this way.

Turkey calls the resolution, which was proposed by a lawmaker with many Armenian-Americans in his district, an insult. Ankara rejects the Armenian position, backed by many Western historians, that up to 1.5 million Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War One.

Turkey has warned of damage to bilateral ties and military cooperation if Congress passes the measure. President George W. Bush and his secretaries of state and defense warned against the step, as did a number of former U.S. secretaries of state

They also report this.

The bulk of supplies for troops in Iraq pass through Turkey's Incirlik airbase, and Turkey provides thousands of truck drivers and other workers for U.S. operations in Iraq. Supplies also flow from that base to troops in Afghanistan.

So one has to ask, why? Why would the LWL want to do this now? NO YOU DON’T. You do not have to ask why. You KNOW why. It’s clear as crystal. They want to hinder the war effort. This is ALL they have wanted to do. This is ALL they seem TO do. If the “bulk of supplies for troops in Iraq pass through Turkey's Incirlik airbase, and Turkey provides thousands of truck drivers and other workers for U.S. operations in Iraq. Supplies also flow from that base to troops in Afghanistan,” and they get pissed at us, what happens? Get the point?

Again, just like the “poor children” when it comes to Healthcare, or the “support” they show for our soldiers, while delaying funds, while calling them stupid, murders, torturers, Nazis, or YOU, when they talk about moving America forward, they do NOT care. They do not care about what happened to the Armenians, they are USING them as political pawns. It is, just that simple.
Peter

Sources:
AFP- US lawmakers back Armenian 'genocide' bill
Office of the House Republican Whip Roy Blunt
Reuters- House panel OKs Armenian genocide resolution