I love watching the pundits discussing why Americans don't trust their leaders, why so many don't vote, why so many have given up any faith they have in the system. "Why, oh why," they moan.
Just take a look at what is going on with the genocide resolutions, my friend, and you'll sure find one answer.
Our misleaders, the politicians haven't any spines. In the face of the historical fact of the genocide of the Armenian people at the hands of the Turks way back at the beginning of the 1900s, they have been "himming" and "hawing" for decades. Can't say the word...won't say the word...wouldn't be prudent...might upset Turkey...could affect the war in Iraq...might bother someone. So they pretend just maybe that genocide didn't happen, maybe no one will notice.
Wasn't everyone all aghast when a few weeks back a certain President of Iran took pretty much the same point of view about the genocide of the Jews at the hands of the Germans? You know, it deserved more study or as some Bushies have said, "Leave it to the historians to decide."
Hell, just today our tough President who likes to stand solidly on principle, this God fearing Christian man stood right up to the plate and proclaimed proudly, "One thing Congress should not be doing is sorting out the historical record of the Ottoman Empire. Congress has more important work to do than antagonizing a democratic ally in the Muslim world, especially one that's providing vital support for our military every day."
No, George Bush II is not afraid to take a stand.
And neither are the conservatives and the Christian right who seem to have lost their voice when it comes to speaking out against the genocide of the mainly Christian Armenians.
Unbelievable.
Now, the Democrats, they of the noble speeches, they who talk endlessly about Iraq but do nothing, those folks, you know them, now they are starting to back away from their own resolution and join their friends on the other side of the aisle and in the White House and becoming "pragmatic."
Take tough talking John Murtha. You remember him. Today calling on the House leadership to shy away from a vote said of the resolution to condemn the genocide, ""We don't have the number of allies we used to have. We've lost so much credibility worldwide." So John is telling his buds to just forget about it already.
Joining Mr. Murtha were Alcee Hastings, chairman of the House Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and John Tanner, Chief of the Voting Rights Section, Robert Wexler, chairman of the House NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and Stephan Cohen, chairman of Subcommittee on European Affairs who all appealed to the House Speaker to call off the vote on the resolution.
``What we are asking is for our own leadership to do what is right for the American national and strategic interests,'' Florida Democrat Robert Wexler said.
``Sometimes your head has to give in to your heart and do what makes sense for your country,'' Tennessee Democrat Stephen Cohen said. ``It's just bad, bad, bad timing.''
They needn't fear. Madam Speaker has no more guts then the rest of these gomers. Pelosi backed off her pledge to call a floor vote on a measure declaring the World War I-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks an act of genocide after support for the resolution eroded.
``Whether it will come up or not and what the action will be remains to be seen,'' Pelosi told reporters today.
And then there is that profile of courage, the former Congressman from Missouri, who so well exemplifies why Americans of all political stripes so often say "a pox on both your houses." Just keep reading.
In 2003, Richard A. Gephardt cosponsored a resolution that put the “Armenian genocide” in company with the Holocaust and mass deaths in Cambodia and Rwanda.
In 2000, the Missouri lawmaker backed a similar measure, and in a letter to then-Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., Gephardt said he was “committed to obtaining official U.S. government recognition of the Armenian genocide.”
Now Gephardt, reports Congressional Quarterly is a foreign agent lobbying on behalf of Turkey, and he’s got a different view of the world. He’s working to stymie the latest version of an Armenian genocide resolution.
It all just makes you want to do one of those Howard Dean screams!!!
The following is from the Congressional Quarterly.
Chances Fading for Armenia Genocide Vote
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged today that an Armenian genocide resolution she supports might not make it to the House floor, as growing opposition spurred by fierce lobbying from the Bush administration and the Turkish government put its adoption in doubt.
The non-binding resolution (H Res 106) calls on President Bush to recognize as genocide the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in the former Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago. The administration and most Republicans oppose a floor vote on the measure, which the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved Oct. 10.
Pelosi, D-Calif., said she would consult with the remaining sponsors to see if there is still enough momentum among Democrats to bring the measure to a floor vote in the coming weeks. “I am working with them to see what their wish is,” she said.
Pelosi has long supported the resolution and in the past has promised to bring it up for a vote. Thousands of Armenian-Americans make up a vocal and influential community in her home district in California.
But about a dozen Democrats have withdrawn their sponsorship and even more have said they won’t vote for it on the floor, prompting Democratic leaders to reconsider.
“If it came to the floor today it would not pass,” said John P. Murtha, D-Pa.
The measure has angered NATO ally Turkey, and the administration has warned that its adoption would harm U.S. foreign policy efforts in the region. It also could touch off a widening of the war in Iraq by emboldening Turkey to strike at Kurdish separatists hiding there among their ethnic brethren.
Earlier, the Turkish parliament voted to authorize cross-border military strikes on the separatists.
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