Does Pelosi Even Know Where Armenia Is?

'Hammer time.

There are three relevant questions concerning the Armenian genocide.

(a) Did it happen?

(b) Should the U.S. House of Representatives be expressing itself on this now?

(c) Was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's determination to bring this to a vote, knowing that it risked provoking Turkey into withdrawing crucial assistance to American soldiers in Iraq, a conscious (columnist Thomas Sowell) or unconscious (blogger Mickey Kaus) attempt to sabotage the U.S. war effort?

The answers are:

(a) Yes, unequivocally.

(b) No, unequivocally.

(c) God only knows.

That between 1 million and 1.5 million Armenians were brutally and systematically massacred starting in 1915 in a deliberate genocidal campaign is a matter of simple historical record. If you really want to deepen and broaden awareness of that historical record, you should support the establishment of the Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial in Washington. But to pass a declarative resolution in the House of Representatives in the middle of a war in which we are inordinately dependent on Turkey would be the height of irresponsibility.

The atrocities happened 90 years ago. Not a single living Turk under the age of 102 is in any way culpable. Even Mesrob Mutafyan, patriarch of the Armenian community in Turkey, has stated that his community is opposed to the resolution, correctly calling it the result of domestic American politics.

Turkey is already massing troops near its border with Iraq, threatening a campaign against Kurdish rebels that could destabilize the one stable front in Iraq. The same House of Representatives that has been complaining loudly about the lack of armored vehicles for our troops is blithely jeopardizing relations with the country through which 95 percent of the new heavily armored vehicles are now transiting on the way to saving American lives in Iraq.

And for what? To feel morally clean?

What happened to the guy who dared to challenge the world to recognize Islamic terrorism for what it is?

Now what are the chances these two events are related???

Bush Calls for Rejection of House Resolution on WWI Armenian 'Genocide'

WASHINGTON — Just hours before a crucial vote, President Bush strongly urged Congress on Wednesday to reject legislation that would declare the World War I-era killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians a genocide.

Bush spoke as the House Foreign Affairs Committee was preparing to vote on the measure that Turkey insists could severely damage U.S. relations with a NATO ally that has been a major portal for U.S. military operations in the region.
"Its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror," the president said.

Shortly before the president spoke, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates stood before microphones on the White House driveway to express the administration's concerns.

"The passage of this resolution at this time would be very problematic for everything we are trying to do in the Middle East," Rice said.

Gates said that 70 percent of U.S. air cargo headed for Iraq goes through Turkey, as does about a third of the fuel used by the U.S. military in Iraq.

Turkey threatens to send troops into Iraq

Again

And again

And let's not forget that Turkey refused to let us use their country to move troops into Iraq from the north thereby allowing folks like Al-Dura to escape. Al-Dura is believed to be one of the most prominent leaders of the Sunni resistance now.

UPDATE: 3:43 PM EST
It looks like Turkey isn't going to wait on UN approval as they are turning up the heat. They are engaging in military action now with jets and tanks. The planes are of course American made and my prediction about tying the two events together has come true.
Turkey escalates offensive near border

SIRNAK, Turkey - Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked
suspected positions of Kurdish rebels near Iraq on Wednesday, a possible prelude
to a cross-border operation that would likely raise tensions with Washington.
The military offensive also reportedly included shelling of Turkish Kurd
guerrilla hideouts in northern Iraq, which is predominantly Kurdish. U.S.
officials are already preoccupied with efforts to stabilize other areas of Iraq
and oppose Turkish intervention in the relatively peaceful north.

And here is the linkage

Turkey and the United States are NATO allies, but relations have also been
tense over a U.S. congressional bill that would label the mass killings of
Armenians by Turks around the time of World War I as genocide.