Ooops! Sorry about that. Actually I want to chat on the hypocrisy and sanctimony of the other broken branch, the House.
As we know, the House foreign affairs committee has voted to officially label the Turkish program of genocide against the Armenians as genocide.
Here's the reaction of the White House: While the House is debating the Ottoman Empire, they are not moving forward with appropriations bills," said Stanzel. "The House has not appointed conferees, they aren't coming to the table to discuss children's health care, and they haven't permanently closed the intelligence gap that will open up when the Protect America Act expires."
Here's the reaction of the Turks:
This is all well and good and great fun except (1) we supply our troops through Turkey and (2) what was that stuff again about glass houses and stones??
Here are three questions for the House:
What would you call what we did to the Native Americans here? (genocide?)
What did y'all do about a slightly more recent and massive episode in Rwanda (nothing?)
What are you doing about a current potential episode in Darfur? (see parentheses above)
To me it's kind of like letting the only country who's actually used a nuclear bomb on civilians be the arbiter of what countries can and cannot have nuclear bombs! What's that? Ooops!
Is this a great country or what?
1 comment:
Dear professor,
This is the first sensible thing I read on this subject. Perhaps, we need to send Nancy Pelosi the following links to educate her before she jumps the gun and introduces another bill to condemn Turkey's "Anzac genocide". Why stop with the Armenians?
Fuzzy history:
During the early phases of the World War I, the Ottoman Empire had lost a major war against the Russians and was facing total disintegration. A very large part of the Ottoman army was decimated by the Russians in the east. Not long after that loss, the British under the leadership of Winston Churchill decided to invade western Turkey. He sent by sea approximately 100,000 troops consisting mostly of New Zealand and Australian soldiers (Anzacs) to the Dardanelles with a view to capture Istanbul. In Gallipoli, shortly before the British invasion began, Kemal Ataturk, the leader of the Turkish Army, gave a brief speech to his troops. He said:
I do not ask you today to fight for your motherland. I ask you to die for it.
Here is the British/Australian/New Zealand take of the Gallipoli. The documentary speaks for itself. Bob wire, an enlarged map and some unsynchronized watches were apparently to blame for the outcome.
Battle of Gallipoli
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
After the war ended, Kemal Ataturk had this to say about the fallen foreign soldiers:
“Those heores that shed their blood and lost their lives… You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore, rest in peace. There is no difference between the Jonnies and Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bossom and are in peace.”
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