U.S. House Wastes Time, Angers Turkish Allies.

     What I am talking about is a House Foreign Relations Committee recommendation to bring for a vote to the full House a resolution stating the killing of perhaps 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire (present day Turkey) was genocide.

     Now, the story of this mass murder is there in all the history books of every free nation in the world. The Turks claim the deaths were all a part of the World War while almost all free nations have refuted this claim for the last century. The question is why the U.S. House needs to make any symbolic comment on something that happened half a world away almost a century ago.

     The Turks, not being ones to have they or their ancestors criticized by anyone, allies or not, have threatened to drop their assistance to us as we continue our struggle in Iraq. Already, the Turkish ambassador in Washington has gone home. The streets in Turkey are filled with protestors and marchers condemning the U.S. The Turkish government is talking about closing their bases which we use to bring support materials in to Iraq and is planning attacks against the Northern Kurds which will bring instability to another region in the Middle East. We have had a fragile agreement with the Turkish government not to pursue military action along their southern border but this resolution which the Turks consider an insult has that in jeopardy.

     Oil has shot up to a new record high as cartels using any excuse in the book to increase oil profits now have a monumental pretext to push oil to $100 per barrel. In the event a war between Turkey and the Kurds does break out, there is no telling what the price of a gallon off gasoline could go to.

     Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, doesn’t seem to fathom the repercussions of continuing on with this official criticism of Turkey, saying she will allow the resolution to come before a full House vote. And then what? Will the statement change a single thing that happened a century ago? Will it right a wrong or alleviate a tragedy of incredible proportions? The historical record of past atrocities by almost every nation are all there in the history books. Should the House decide to waste time on resolutions of condemnation against those countries and further destroy what little solidarity we have with the world? A world that tells us we have no business with our own history and our present policies to be throwing verbal stones at anyone.

     The Republicans have a track record of showing they do not understand the culture of the region. Now the Democrats are proving they also have no idea that the Middle Eastern philosophy considers any criticism of them as an insult justifiable enough to go to war for centuries. The history of the region shows just how serious these cultures take what they consider an insult yet the U.S. House may decide to throw another affront into an already broiling cauldron of instability in the region.

     Sometimes, we are our own worst enemy.