Republican leaders and right-wing pundits alike think this resolution is pointless, especially considering that the Democrats have done nothing about genocides in other countries. Last week, this blog reported Senator McCain’s stance on the issue:
Here’s the difference between the Armenian situation and Burma. The Armenian situation is over, there’s now chance that any Turkish government would ever repeat that. In Burma today, monks are being killed, imprisoned, tortured by this group of thugs and why we haven’t as a nation, as a world, reacted more strongly I guess maybe shows a cynicism and a weariness that is very disappointing to me… In fact, with all due respect to my friends in the House of Representatives, I understand their concern about what happened in 1915, I wish they’d also work on and pay attention to what’s happening in 2007 where innocent people are being slaughtered, imprisoned, and tortured.
Jules Crittenden agrees, and says,
Genocide still exists indeed. That’s what makes this such a critical move for Pelosi. When you’ve been doing everything you can to promote a 21st century genocide as a matter of principle, it is important that you show you won’t be intimidated by crass political concerns into taking a firm stand against a genocide that happened 90 years ago.
Bryan at Hot Air weighs in:
While we’re at it, let’s pass a resolution condemning Italy for the Roman sacking of Jerusalem in 70 AD. I’m sure there are dozens of other historic crimes that the Democrats can busy themselves with while today’s actual crimes and threats go uncondemned. Passing these resolutions would make about as much sense as the one the House has actually passed, which states US condemnation of the Armenian genocide, a horrific event that took place 90 years ago when Turkey was known as the Ottoman Empire. This isn’t to minimize the Armenian genocide, but for heaven’s sake it’s been 90 years. Turkey wasn’t even Turkey.
Jed Babbin at Human Events notes the potentially dangerous implications of such a resolution, and makes another important point:
But the resolution is gratuitous and Democrats’ timing suspicious. It’s gratuitous because, in 1981, President Reagan referred to the Armenian massacre as genocide in a proclamation commemorating the Nazi Holocaust.
Blogger Uncle Jimbo at Black Five is particularly outraged, and says, “I will grant that the killings of many Armenians was particularly heinous and worthy of all kinds of condemnation, but calling it genocide in the US Congress is a foolish attempt to make Nancy and some others feel good.” But Ace notes this is a difficult issue to take a stance on: “I guess some nuance is warranted here. Opposing the resolution seems to me to be a pretty defensible position, given the high stakes in alienating our semi-ally Turkey, but it’s hard to be huffy and righteous about doing so.”
