PELOSI’S WAR
By: Newsmax Staff
NewsMax, FL
Oct 16 2007
If Turkey intensifies its military campaign against Kurdish rebels in
northern Iraq, observers will point a finger of blame at House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi for her support of a resolution accusing the Turks of
"genocide."
Pelosi said Sunday that she’d bring to a vote the resolution condemning
the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey nearly a century ago as
genocide, despite warnings that the action could damage U.S.-Turkey
relations.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the non-binding resolution
last week.
About 1.5 million Armenians were killed, beginning in 1915, as the
Ottoman Empire crumbled. The Turkish government objects to the word
"genocide" and insists that while hundreds of thousands of Armenians
died, they died as a result of war.
Opponents of the resolution, including President Bush, Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, argue
that the measure jeopardizes relations with an important ally at a
time when Turkey’s cooperation in Iraq and Afghanistan is vital.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul has called the resolution
"unacceptable."
Pelosi’s push for the measure comes as Turkey has reportedly already
launched limited strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, and
has even forged a military alliance with Iran to combat the rebels,
who have carried out guerilla operations inside Turkey and Iran.
Turkey and Iran attacked rebel forces in Iran and Iraq beginning
in August, a rebel commander told Newsmax correspondent Kenneth
R. Timmerman.
Turkish and Iranian artillery have shelled civilian villages inside
Iraq, the commander added.
The military operations make the timing of the "genocide" resolution
especially unfortunate, threatening not only a wider war against the
Kurds, but also a cutoff of American access to the strategic Incirlik
airbase crucial to U.S. operations in Iraq.
When a similar resolution reached the House in October 2000, then
Speaker Dennis Hastert withdraw it minutes before a scheduled vote,
after President Bill Clinton warned it would harm ties with Turkey.
The French National Assembly voted a year ago to make it a crime to
deny that the Armenian killings were genocide. Turkey responded by
suspending military ties with France.
Turkish President Gul blames the Democrats’ support of the genocide
resolution on "petty games of domestic politics."
And Newsmax pundit David Limbaugh writes: "In the unlikely event
that the Democrats’ motive isn’t to undercut our mission in Iraq,
it might as well be – and they ought to be held accountable just as
sternly as if it were.
"To the extent the resolution imperils American troops, it is
egregiously reckless and indefensible at all levels."
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