Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2007 > October > 17
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Pelosi’s on our team, right?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Recognizing that the possibility exists that Hillary Clinton or, worse, somebody else from the Democratic field of presidential candidates could occupy the White House in 2008 — assuming that is, that the electorate has a momentary lapse in its usual good judgment — it’s not too early to take a look at the foreign policy implications.
Hillary’s hard to pin down. She’s a poll-watcher and I suspect that, like Bill, she’d be a missiles-to-mud-huts leader with no stomach for any military engagement that lasts longer than a semester break.
A real concern, however, is her party in Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a few others in leadership position are pushing a resolution that would label the deaths of about 1.5 million Armenians, who were killed between 1915 and 1923 as the Ottoman Empire collapsed, as genocide. The Turkish government vehemently objects to the “genocide” label and maintains that they died as a result of war.
Pursuing the resolution could have serious consequences for U.S. efforts in Iraq. About 70 percent of the air cargo the U.S. ships to military forces in Iraq passes through Turkey’s Incirlik airbase, and a denial of access would be a major blow to the resupply chain. What’s more, Turkey has always been uneasy about the Kurds, and specifically the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, against which it has launched limited strikes. Kurds occupy portions of three nations — Iraq, Turkey and Iran — and the danger always exists that Turkey and Iran could find reason to cooperate against a rebel force that could one day become a common enemy.
The point is that it’s near mindlessness for House leaders to push a resolution that the military and the administration have warned could severely damage U.S. relations with a key Middle Eastern ally. After the committee vote, Turkey recalled its ambassador for consultations.
Will Pelosi back off? House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that leaders still plan to bring up the resolution before Congress adjourns at the end of the year. At least 17 House members, including Rep. Sanford Bishop, a Democrat whose Southwest Georgia district includes Ft. Benning, have withdrawn their support.
The question has to arise as to why Pelosi and House Democratic leaders would dare go forward with a resolution that could be so harmful to U.S. efforts to win in Iraq? They do want us to win, don’t they?
