Once again, the Democratic Party has shown that it can be trusted with sensitive foreign policy issues like Paris Hilton with the keys to the liquor cabinet. In a response that can only be described as predictable, Turkey today recalled its ambassador to the United States in response to the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ 27-21 vote to pass out of committee a measure labeling the World War I era “killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks” as genocide.  Aside from being ill-conceived and ill timed, this could possibly be the most disingenuous piece of legislation to come out of Congress since “Our Fearless Speaker” Nancy Pelosi and her cronies took over as the majority party on the Hill earlier this year.  And that’s saying something.

Oh sure, on the face of it, it doesn’t seem like a bad resolution.  For Americans weak on history and geography, but long on multiculturalism and social injustice training, it likely shines like a beacon in the darkness. America stands up against persecution, film at 11!  You see, Tom Lantos (Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee) and the other sponsors of the bill not only know that it looks like feel-good legislation – they’re counting on it.  They’re counting on John Q. Public to just sit back, accept it and not ask pesky questions like, “Why now?” or “What’s the agenda?” or “What are the possible consequences?” or even “What’s an Ottoman Turk?”  As with much of the legislation that’s come out of Washington lately, the devil is in the details and the only way to expose this travesty, this farce for what it is - another thinly-veiled attempt to force the U.S. out of Iraq – is to ask the tough questions.  Unfortunately, if passed by the full House of Representatives, the resolution may not only serve to end the war in Iraq, but start World War III.  Absurd?  You decide.  Let’s take a look at the facts…

Along with its status as the most secular nation in the Middle East and a loyal member of NATO, Turkey is the United States’ closest ally in the region and a key component of the successful prosecution of the War in Iraq.  You see, over 70 percent of the cargo sent to U.S. forces in Iraq and 30 percent of the fuel used by U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq is sent through Turkey.  How convenient! I’m sure that Lantos & Co. had no idea of that little tidbit of information when this resolution was drawn up.  I’m sure that the decision to move forward with condemning our closest Middle Eastern ally in 2007 for acts that occurred a century ago was just an unfortunate coincidence!  Never mind that Defense Secretary Robert Gates was quoted as saying, “U.S. commanders believe clearly that access to airfields and roads and so on, in Turkey, would very much be put at risk if this resolution passes and the Turks react as strongly as we believe they will.”  Who cares about the needs of the modern day U.S. Military when there’s a hundred-year-old injustice that needs to be addressed!  Damn the consequences – full speed ahead!  It’s so disgusting it’s almost comical.

Perhaps the most revolting aspect of this dangerous sideshow is the language used in the resolution. Believe me, the sponsors of this bill were counting on your ignorance of the Middle East when it was drawn up. You can see it in the carefully chosen antiseptic language used.  It’s easy for Americans to condemn the “Ottoman Turks” for violence against the “Armenians”, because many have no idea what that truly means.  Remember when I said that Turkey is the most secular nation in the Middle East?  While that is no doubt true, being the most secular nation in the Middle East is like being the least contagious guy in the leper colony.  Turkey is still a very Muslim country and while modern-day Turks are surely more tolerant than their counterparts in other Islamic countries in the region, the same was not true for the citizens of the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the last century.  Centered in what is now Turkey, the Ottoman Empire was a very Islamic country in every sense of the word and – as with most Islamic countries throughout history – Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims were persecuted to various extents throughout its history – perhaps none more so than the Armenians from the late 1800s through 1923.  Yes, the Armenians were Christian, yet this “critical piece of legislation” makes no mention of that.  If the goal of the resolution is truly to call attention to one of the world’s great injustices as the Dems would have us believe, why not make a statement that has some impact? Instead of censuring the “Ottoman Turks for genocide against the Armenians”, why doesn’t the language “condemn the butchering of Christians by radical Muslims at the end of the 19^th Century?”  Frankly, honest language like that wouldn’t play well in Peoria.  Americans just might once again take notice of this recurring theme in the Middle East and take more of an interest in the War on Islamic Fundamentalism that we’re engaged in – and that wouldn’t serve the agenda of MoveOn.org, the Daily Kos or any other contributor to the modern Democratic party.

I am in no way saying that the Ottoman Empire did not slaughter thousands of Armenians during World War I. That is well documented and anyone who denies it is on the same level as those that deny the Holocaust.  However, what positive outcome will come out of ramming this ill-begotten legislation through the House of Representatives in October of 2007?  The answer is nothing positive can come of it, but something negative WILL come of it.  If this passes the full House, the best we can hope for is a decade of strained relations between the U.S. and our (former) ally in the Middle East.  That’s right, the best scenario threatens our relations with a fellow NATO country and endangers the supply lines to our military (the same military that the Democrats claim to support and whose supplies were a plank in their mid-term election campaigns).  They get worse from there.  Imagine awakening radical Islamic fundamentalism in a (formerly) secular country.  Imagine creating thousands of new terrorist foot-soldiers.  That is the future if we do not stop this folly in its tracks.  That is the future if we allow people like Tom Lantos to control U.S. foreign policy.  Hey, Paris – pass the Jack Daniel’s.

COPYRIGHT 2007, Peter Citera, All Rights Reserved.