Genocide

We all need to laugh at Congress this week for their weak and tentative posturing around the issue of the 90 year old, historically well documented, GENOCIDE of the ONE AND ONE HALF MILLION Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire during World War One.

Some members of Congress want to try, once again, to pass a Resolution condemning the Armenian Genocide.

That is not to say their aren't real and compelling reasons to avoid the Congressional Resolution before the House this month. Turkey is a rare and important ally in the middle east and a potentially powerful enemy in Kurdish Iraq. And Turkey is deeply offended by the resolution.

Why then should we laugh at the Congressional debate over the Armenian Genocide. Only to keep from crying.

Fighting, stopping or even protesting Genocide is the biggest joke on earth. The safest thing any petty dictator or country can do today is kill a few hundred thousand of their neighbors.

Genocide is generally supported by the world's strongest nations. China, India, even President Bush's more globally active United States, either actively support the on going GENOCIDE in Darfur, provide financial aid or United Nations cover to the perpetrators, or stand by and watch the death and destruction of one ethnic group by another.

So we once again mount a massive political battle in Congress capturing emotions, political favors and ethnic support over a 90 year old atrocity. No matter what Congress does this next month, not one Armenian life will be saved. That tragic genocide all took place 90 years ago.

Turkey does need to face it's past. And the so-called democracy in Turkey actually has laws in place that can condemn people to prison for even using the word Genocide in public when discussing the "war." Change is coming in Turkey, reporters on NPR tell us (be sure to listen to this excellent and in depth report), but the change is coming slowly. Ninety years is slow.

So be sure to drop a note to the displaced Darfur mother of a child starving to death in a refugee camp in Chad this morning that the US Congress will debate the issue in about 90 years. But it's unlikely they will actually do anything.