The new Democratic Congress seems to have fallen in love with the nonbinding resolution. First it was the resolution condemning the president’s new Iraq strategy, which, as a nonbinding resolution, had no effect but to convey to the troops in Iraq and our allies abroad the defeatist sentiments of the new Democratic Congress. Then there was the nonbinding resolution demanding that Japan apologize for the use of foreign women as sex slaves during the Second World War. Never mind that Japan has already apologized for the abuse, that Japan is this country’s closest ally in the region, and that there is little to be gained from such a resolution–ask the man on the street if he worries about North Korea’s nuclear program or Japanese human rights abuses during the war years. But this is still a powerful issue in China and Korea. Now the newest nonbinding resolution that Congress has taken up concerns the genocide of Armenians by Turkey during the First World War. It too threatens to upset relations with a key American ally. And like the others, it will have no effect but to satisfy the demands of an interest group, in this case Armenians who are well represented among Nancy Pelosi’s constituents. It takes little effort for Congress to pass such resolutions, and it does much for their standing with interest groups, antiwar, ethnic, or othewise, but it is the administration that has to deal with the consequences. And it is the American public that will pay the price for the irresponsible actions of elected officials who remain largely unaccountable for the mess they will make of this country’s foreign policy.
