Kurds And Why

It's time to start imposing mandatory drug and alcohol screening on all three branches of Government. Let's start with Nancy Pelosi. I would like to know exactly what combination of chemicals makes this seem necessary or timely:

House speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday said she planned to put the bill before the full House of Representatives. The House foreign affairs committee last week branded the Ottoman Empire's World War I massacre of Armenians a genocide, angering Ankara.

Armenians say at least 1.5 million of their people were killed from 1915 to 1917 under what they describe as an campaign of deportation and murder by the Ottoman Empire. Turkey bitterly disputes the number of dead and the characterization of the killings as a genocide.

Well, duh. This genocide is a matter of international historical record. The Democrats finally take control of Congress and they use their new clout to catch up to Woodrow Wilson?
After WW1 and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, President Wilson cited the Turkish massacres of the Armenians when he recognized the need for an independent Armenian state in a 1920 message to Congress:

May 24, 1920. — Read; referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and ordered to be printed.

Gentlemen of the Congress:

On the fourteenth of May an official communication was received at the Executive Office from the Secretary of the Senate of the United States conveying the following preambles and resolutions:

Whereas the testimony adduced at the hearings conducted by the subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations have clearly established the truth of the reported massacres and other atrocities from which the Armenian people have suffered; and

Whereas the people of the United States are deeply impressed by the deplorable conditions of insecurity, starvation, and misery now prevalent in Armenia; and

Whereas the independence of the Republic of Armenia has been duly recognized by the Supreme Council of the Peace Conference and by the Government of the United States of America: Therefore be it

Resolved, That the sincere congratulations of the Senate of the United States are hereby extended to the people of Armenia on the recognition of the independence of the Republic of Armenia, without prejudice respecting the territorial boundaries involved...

He also invoked Christianity as part of his declaration. We need to protect Christians, said Wilson:

...I make the suggestion in the confidence that I am speaking in the spirit and in accordance with the wishes of the greatest of the Christian peoples. The sympathy for Armenia among our people has sprung from untainted consciences, pure Christian faith, and an earnest desire to see Christian people everywhere succored in their time of suffering, and lifted from their abject subjection and distress and enabled to stand upon their feet and take their place among the free nations of the world.

Two years later Armenia was swallowed up by the godless Soviet state and subjected to the tender mercies of Joe Stalin. Wilson could have sent US troops into Armenia and started the Cold War thirty years early- with the US and the USSR waging a proxy war on Armenian soil- but he didn't.

What he did do was publicly acknowledge the genocide committed by the Turks. Doesn't Pelosi know this? If not, why doesn't she? The term 'genocide' was not in use at the time, but the size and scope of the massacres and atrocities were well-known when Wilson condemned them. It was not a secret in many countries not named Turkey.

Why is Pelosi introducing this bill now? It does nothing but modernize the language of Wilson's lip service- and piss off Turkey, our ostensible ally. We have considerable strategic resources at risk and seemingly little to gain. Among the people who do stand to gain from this action are the oil companies, who can jack prices and increase profits again as soon as this stupid debacle starts fucking up the world's oil markets- which happened about an hour ago as of this writing. It would also make the rich Armenians in Pelosi's district happy- at the consternation of everyone who isn't a wealthy member of the Armenian Diaspora movement.

Here are some facts about Armenia, courtesy of the CIA:

-Armenia is an aggressor nation. Armenia has been militarily occupying 1/8th of neighboring Azerbaijan for over ten years. This has displaced nearly a million people, perhaps more.

-Armenia was the first nation to declare itself insane, circa 300 A.D.

-Armenia is a Christian nation in a Muslim neighborhood.

-Armenia has no oil.

-Construction of a natural gas pipeline between Iran and Armenia has been completed and it is scheduled to be commissioned by April 2007. Economic ties with Russia remain close, especially in the energy sector.

-Nuclear power plants built at Metsamor eliminated the chronic energy shortages Armenia suffered in the early and mid-1990s, but those plants are under international pressure to close.

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Why are we sticking it to the Turks now?

Could it have anything to do with Turkey's decision to attack Kurds in Iraq, Kurds who are also ostensibly on our side? This development seems to have gotten almost zero press coverage despite the fact that it threatens to make Iraq even more unstable than it already is.

It gets more interesting. Muslim-dominated Azerbaijan- the same Azerbaijan that has been at war with Armenia since, well, forever- does have oil. Lots of oil. But it's been hard to develop because of geographical difficulty and political instability- getting the oil to the West is a real problem. Currently, the oil is being pumped via a pipeline that crosses Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, who share in the revenue. Not surprisingly, corruption is rampant in all three nations.

Now take a look at the map below. Imagine that tensions between Turkey and the US lead Ankara to shut down that pipeline. Georgia isn't a very stable nation either, so events there could disrupt flow as well. Do you see any alternative routes to the West?

Which country would you have to invade?

Hint: It starts with an I.





Hopefully, that won't happen.

According to breaking news, we have just won the Iraqi war!

It's been said that our reason for staying in Iraq is to fight an organization imaginatively called 'Al-Queda in Iraq'- an organization that didn't even exist until after we invaded.
Apparently, AQ in I are close to becoming non-existent again, which means we can bring all of our troops home right away.

We won! That's about the worst news BushCo could hear. It means they no longer have an excuse to snowball their for-profit war machine. I expect Bush will make a speech tomorrow announcing our victory and promising that our troops will be home by Christmas. Right?

I'm kidding. He won't do that.

The funny thing is, if he did do that, his approval ratings would soar and and the GOP's 2008 chances would rise with them- but it would shut down the Blood Money Machine.

If Bush's loyalties are to America and it's troops, he will use this face-saving 'out' and start a military withdrawal even if it means that a lot of corporations will lose money in the short term.
'Turn your swords into plowshares', Bush could advise the disgruntled war profiteers.
It's not a bad concept.

If his loyalties lie anywhere but with the American people, he will keep us in Iraq indefinitely.

What's your guess?