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POINTLESS MORAL EXHIBITIONISM IN TURKEY
By Rich Lowry
Town Hall, DC
http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/RichLowry/20 07/10/15/pointless_moral_exhibitionism_in_turkey
O ct 15 2007
The Ottoman Empire died an ignominious death 85 years ago in the
aftermath of World War I. Democrats are nonetheless intent on rebuking
it for the mass killing of Armenians during World War I that many
scholars and a proposed House resolution call "genocide."
The historical controversy over the massacres is an extremely sensitive
point in Turkey, where it's a crime to refer to the massacres as a
genocide. The mere passage of the resolution by a House committee last
week was enough for Turkey to recall its ambassador to the U.S. The
House leadership promises a vote by the full House by the middle of
November, and the resolution likely will pass with bipartisan support,
souring relations with an ally whose support is absolutely essential
to our war in Iraq.
And the Democrats accuse President Bush of diplomatic insensitivity?
Bush the "cowboy" would never do something so pointlessly
destructive. The resolution represents local interest-group politics
wedded to moral exhibitionism, with tendentious, strategically
blinkered justifications thrown on top.
The top "Young Turk" Ottoman ministers responsible for the deportation
orders against the Armenians -- Mehmet Talaat, Ismail Enver and Ahmed
Djemal -- might be appropriately shamed by the resolution if they
hadn't died in 1921, 1922 and 1922 respectively.
To have had any positive real-world effect beyond the merely symbolic,
the resolution should have been pursued by Speaker Nancy Pelosi's
predecessor, Champ Clark, who ruled over the House from 1911 to 1919.
Pelosi has a special interest in the resolution because she has
thousands of Armenian-Americans in her district, as does another strong
backer of the resolution, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. These constituents
want recognition of the historic injustice done to them and their
forebears. That's entirely understandable, but it's not the role of
the United States Congress to unravel long-ago historical disputes.
Most members of Congress need to be told how to vote on the latest
highway-appropriations bill. They aren't suited to rule on complex
historical controversies, especially when no local projects are
involved to hold their attention. The slaughter of the Armenians
is not as self-evidently a genocide as the Holocaust. Armenians were
killed in massive numbers, but respected historians like Bernard Lewis,
Norman Stone and Guenter Lewy think there wasn't genocidal intent on
the part of the Ottoman government.
Even if Pelosi and Co. are right, there is no reason to pass this
resolution now, with our troops dependent on logistical support
flowing through Turkey and Turkish troops massing on the northern
border of Iraq for a potentially destabilizing strike against Kurdish
terrorists. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, citing Darfur, says, "If
we paper over what has happened, then we are at risk of letting it
happen again."
Well, we are letting it happen again already in Darfur, and a
resolution about a 90-year-old atrocity isn't going to stop it. How
many members of the murderous Janjaweed militia have even heard of
the Ottoman Empire, let alone care whether the U.S. Congress condemns
its crimes or not? A genocide could overtake Iraq if the sectarian
war there burns out of control, but all Democrats have to say about
that potential atrocity is that we should get out of its way. Perhaps
one of Pelosi's successors will propose a nonbinding House resolution
criticizing the slaughter in 2097.
In response to the resolution, the Turks could deny us landing rights
at the air base at Incirlik, close the crossing into Iraq at the
Habur frontier gate, and deny us blanket overflight rights. All of
this is crucial to the resupply of our troops in Iraq who Democratic
politicians swear they "support" at the same time they consistently
undermine their mission. They opposed the troop surge that has shifted
the military landscape in their favor, they emboldened their enemies
by broadcasting our lack of staying power, and now they could alienate
one of their friends.
But the Ottoman Empire, from somewhere in the dustbin of history,
presumably will learn its lesson.
Rich Lowry is author of Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton
Years .
photo: People attend the funeral of a soldier, Ali Sahan, in the
central Anatolian city of Kutahya October 8, 2007. A Turkish soldier
was killed and three more were wounded in a landmine explosion on
Monday, putting further pressure on Turkey's government just one
day after Kurdish rebels shot dead 13 Turkish troops. The increased
attacks on security personnel in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey have
reignited talk of a major Turkish military incursion into neighbouring
northern Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels who use the region as a base.
By Rich Lowry
Town Hall, DC
http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/RichLowry/20 07/10/15/pointless_moral_exhibitionism_in_turkey
O ct 15 2007
The Ottoman Empire died an ignominious death 85 years ago in the
aftermath of World War I. Democrats are nonetheless intent on rebuking
it for the mass killing of Armenians during World War I that many
scholars and a proposed House resolution call "genocide."
The historical controversy over the massacres is an extremely sensitive
point in Turkey, where it's a crime to refer to the massacres as a
genocide. The mere passage of the resolution by a House committee last
week was enough for Turkey to recall its ambassador to the U.S. The
House leadership promises a vote by the full House by the middle of
November, and the resolution likely will pass with bipartisan support,
souring relations with an ally whose support is absolutely essential
to our war in Iraq.
And the Democrats accuse President Bush of diplomatic insensitivity?
Bush the "cowboy" would never do something so pointlessly
destructive. The resolution represents local interest-group politics
wedded to moral exhibitionism, with tendentious, strategically
blinkered justifications thrown on top.
The top "Young Turk" Ottoman ministers responsible for the deportation
orders against the Armenians -- Mehmet Talaat, Ismail Enver and Ahmed
Djemal -- might be appropriately shamed by the resolution if they
hadn't died in 1921, 1922 and 1922 respectively.
To have had any positive real-world effect beyond the merely symbolic,
the resolution should have been pursued by Speaker Nancy Pelosi's
predecessor, Champ Clark, who ruled over the House from 1911 to 1919.
Pelosi has a special interest in the resolution because she has
thousands of Armenian-Americans in her district, as does another strong
backer of the resolution, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. These constituents
want recognition of the historic injustice done to them and their
forebears. That's entirely understandable, but it's not the role of
the United States Congress to unravel long-ago historical disputes.
Most members of Congress need to be told how to vote on the latest
highway-appropriations bill. They aren't suited to rule on complex
historical controversies, especially when no local projects are
involved to hold their attention. The slaughter of the Armenians
is not as self-evidently a genocide as the Holocaust. Armenians were
killed in massive numbers, but respected historians like Bernard Lewis,
Norman Stone and Guenter Lewy think there wasn't genocidal intent on
the part of the Ottoman government.
Even if Pelosi and Co. are right, there is no reason to pass this
resolution now, with our troops dependent on logistical support
flowing through Turkey and Turkish troops massing on the northern
border of Iraq for a potentially destabilizing strike against Kurdish
terrorists. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, citing Darfur, says, "If
we paper over what has happened, then we are at risk of letting it
happen again."
Well, we are letting it happen again already in Darfur, and a
resolution about a 90-year-old atrocity isn't going to stop it. How
many members of the murderous Janjaweed militia have even heard of
the Ottoman Empire, let alone care whether the U.S. Congress condemns
its crimes or not? A genocide could overtake Iraq if the sectarian
war there burns out of control, but all Democrats have to say about
that potential atrocity is that we should get out of its way. Perhaps
one of Pelosi's successors will propose a nonbinding House resolution
criticizing the slaughter in 2097.
In response to the resolution, the Turks could deny us landing rights
at the air base at Incirlik, close the crossing into Iraq at the
Habur frontier gate, and deny us blanket overflight rights. All of
this is crucial to the resupply of our troops in Iraq who Democratic
politicians swear they "support" at the same time they consistently
undermine their mission. They opposed the troop surge that has shifted
the military landscape in their favor, they emboldened their enemies
by broadcasting our lack of staying power, and now they could alienate
one of their friends.
But the Ottoman Empire, from somewhere in the dustbin of history,
presumably will learn its lesson.
Rich Lowry is author of Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton
Years .
photo: People attend the funeral of a soldier, Ali Sahan, in the
central Anatolian city of Kutahya October 8, 2007. A Turkish soldier
was killed and three more were wounded in a landmine explosion on
Monday, putting further pressure on Turkey's government just one
day after Kurdish rebels shot dead 13 Turkish troops. The increased
attacks on security personnel in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey have
reignited talk of a major Turkish military incursion into neighbouring
northern Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels who use the region as a base.