Say Anything Blog

But the Dems keep pushing it forward.

ISTANBUL, Turkey- Turkey’s top general warned that ties with the U.S., already strained by attacks from rebels hiding in Iraq, will be irreversibly damaged if Congress passes a resolution that labels the World War I-era killings of Armenians a genocide.

Turkey, which is a major cargo hub for U.S. and allied military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, has recalled its ambassador to Washington for consultations and warned that there might be a cut in the logistical support to the U.S. over the issue.

Gen. Yasar Buyukanit told daily Milliyet newspaper that a congressional committee’s approval of the measure had already harmed ties between the two countries.

“If this resolution passed in the committee passes the House as well, our military ties with the U.S. will never be the same again,” Buyukanit was quoted as saying by Milliyet.

“I’m the military chief, I deal with security issues. I’m not a politician,” Buyukanit was quoted as saying by Milliyet. “In this regard, the U.S. shot its own foot.”

I’m as in favor of condemning genocide as the next guy.  Historical revisionism to cover up such atrocities, or merely to let them fade from memory, is...well...atrocious.  But there’s a lot more at stake here than the high moral ground.

Turkey is vital to our mission in Iraq.  Our soldiers fighting in Iraq depend on the air missions and supplies which are routed through Turkey.  If we lost Turkey’s cooperation the logistical nightmare it would pose to our military commanders in Iraq would be enormous, and would undoubtedly lead to the unnecessary death of more than a few of our soldiers.  At the very least, it would put our soldiers in great risk.

So why, then, is this resolution so important to push now?  Activists have been pushing for this for ten years.  Is there not a time in the future, when the lives of some of our soldiers don’t depend on Turkey’s cooperation with our foreign policy in the middle east, when we could pass this?

For the Democrats the answer is “No.” Because they don’t care about our foreign policy in the middle east.  They want to end the war by any means necessary because that’s what is best for their political agenda.  They’d choke the war to death by cutting off funding, but realized that such a move (which would also put our soldiers in needless jeopardy) would be politically unpopular, so they dropped it.  But this move is more oblique, allowing them to undermine the President and the military without being directly tied to the situation.

Politically it’s ingenious, though still little more than a shallow ploy from those more concerned about their political prospects than what is best for the country.