October 11, 2007
Bad Time to Play Politics (John Feehery)
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has picked the worst time to play politics when it comes to Iraq, Turkey and Armenia.
I worked for Denny Hastert when he went out to campaign for Jim Rogan and promised him a vote on an Armenian Genocide Resolution. The reaction from the Turkish government was swift. They threatened to cancel billions of dollars of military contracts with American companies like Boeing. They promised to kick us out of Incirlik Air Force Base. They told the president that they wouldn’t help us out on just about anything we needed help on in the Middle East.
It was bad. President Clinton pleaded with Speaker Hastert: Don’t threaten our own national security for domestic politics. After thinking long and hard, the Speaker took the right route. He told Rogan he couldn’t put the resolution on the floor. And Rogan ended up losing his election. Hastert sacrificed a congressional seat in order to protect America’s national security.
Now, almost a decade later, a new Speaker and a new situation.
We are now in a real war with terrorists. We have more than 100,000 troops in Iraq. We have the Turks threatening to invade Kurdistan, just as Joe Biden talks about creating Kurdistan out of the ashes of Iraq. We have a more Islamic-leaning Turkish government. We are a fighting a global war on terror, where we need the help of the Turks more than ever.
And Nancy Pelosi has decided to bring the same resolution to the floor, threatening our national security by playing politics.
The Armenians have a legitimate beef with the Turks. The Irish have a legitimate beef with the British for what they did during the Irish Potato Famine. There are a lot of people with a lot of grievances out there.
But we are in a war with radical Islam. One of our closest allies in this fight is the Turkish government, which has had its own battles with radical Islam. Why would we stick a finger in the eye of one of our most important allies in this extraordinarily important war just for the sake of politics?
Can you imagine if the Congress decided to condemn the Brits for the Irish Potato Famine in 1943? It doesn’t make any sense.
This is a bad time to play politics, Madame Speaker, especially on this issue, follow the lead of your predecessor. Choose American national security over domestic politics.
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Why do we even care about this issue? We run the risk of alienating an important Muslim ally (and trust me, we don't have that many) in the war against radical Muslim fundamentalists and jihadists just so we can be nice to a bunch of Armenians who don't even live in this country? This event happened over 90, that's right, over 90 years ago. I'm sorry what happened to the Armenians, but if we start condemning what other people did to ethnic groups in other countries, where does it stop? Are we going to formally condemn in Congress the way the French treated blacks in West Africa? Are we going to condemn what the Belgians did in the Congo? Are we going to condemn what the British did in India? Are we going to condemn what the Dutch did in colonizing Java? And, while we're at it, is the rest of the world going to condemn us for what we did to the American Indians? How would we feel if France passed a resolution condemning what we did to the Sioux people throughout the Nineteenth Century? This is lunacy and I really think Congress has more important issues to debate than what happened in another country over 90 years ago.
Or could this be another way for Democrats to try and stop the war in Iraq? By alienating Turkey, maybe they are hoping that Turkey will stop us from using their country to supply our troops? Over 70% of the supplies going to our troops in Iraq has to go through Turkey, so if Turkey closes her borders to us then it will be a lot more difficult to supply our own troops, perhaps forcing us to start withdrawing them. Pardon me for being so cynical, but nothing the deranged liberal democrats do in Congress these days would surprise me.
Comment by Libertyship46 — October 11, 2007 @ 10:16 am
What do you expect from low lifes and scum? Surely integrity is too much too expect these days.
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — October 11, 2007 @ 10:18 am
Who knows, maybe Nancy's had enough of the Code Pinkers causing trouble near her house and wants to move to Fresno. Lot's of Armenians there. But seriously, yeah what can you say, she seems to enjoy hurting this country and is dumb beyond belief. It's too bad half the population doesn't see that they are electing the fifth column to some of the highest posts in the land.
Comment by Igor R. — October 11, 2007 @ 1:54 pm
Now the Ambassador has been recalled. The Queen has real power. Long live the Queen!
Comment by Igor R. — October 11, 2007 @ 4:18 pm
By the way, Nancy's real purpose in life is to act as a warning for having freaks in high places. Nurse Ratched, are you paying attention?
Comment by Igor R. — October 11, 2007 @ 5:00 pm
This is the best characterization of this episode I've seen:
“The Democrats are attacking the supply line of our military in Iraq.”
Anybody with an ounce of decency in them should hang their head in shame over the traitors gleefully destroying their country.
Comment by Igor R. — October 11, 2007 @ 5:26 pm
Traitor is what she is. Despicable is what her party is. She is just plain stupid. But that's what you get when you allow democrats to control your education system and media for so long…
Comment by Rich — October 12, 2007 @ 5:44 pm
[…] Two days later, the conversation changed as the White House continued to apply pressure to prevent the resolution from being put to the U.S. Congress for a full vote in November. With Turkey continuing to make threats to prevent U.S. troops in Iraq from being supplied via its territory, and with the Turkish Ambassador being "temporarily withdrawn, "opponents of the resolution started to accuse U.S. Congressional Speaker Nancy Pelosi of supporting House Resolution 106 in an attempt to scupper the war effort. Blogs such as The Hill’s Pundits Blog took the same line in cyberspace. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has picked the worst time to play politics when it comes to Iraq, Turkey and Armenia. […]
Pingback by Global Voices Online » Armenian Genocide Resolution in the U.S. Congress -- Righting a Historical Wrong? — October 21, 2007 @ 6:22 pm