The Captain
gets a lot of things wrong, but he really out did himself on this one. Regarding
Turkey’s recent military tantrum:
It goes without saying that we would have had more influence on the situation
in Turkey had Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in Congress made themselves the
arbiter of the Armenian genocide of 1915. If the troops cross the border,
we can thank Pelosi and her colleagues for reducing our ability to avoid a
shooting war that could cost thousands of lives here and now.
It goes without saying?
Mind you, I think the House time machine resolution to go back to 1915 is the
wrong thing to do right now. However, it’s not even certain it will move forward at this point. But even not knowing that development, to make the leap that the Armenian genocide conversation inspired
Turkey to all of a sudden want to rattle their sabers against the PKK shows
a gaping ignorance of history, not to mention reality on the ground in northern Iraq.
Conservatives will stop at nothing to attack liberals, children and outspoken veterans, without cause or proof, but they’re missing the mark wider than usual lately. Seriously, “The Nancy Pelosi Invasion”? I make my share of mistakes, believe me, but this is a real whopper.
If you want to
talk about something that worsened our relations with the Turks it was Mr. Bush’s
preemptive excursion into Iraq. Our relationship with Turkey soured during Bush’s
term because he basically thought he could treat them like his personal military
tool, while ignoring things that actually mattered to the Turks. Rest assured, the PKK didn’t become an issue because of the House’s Armenian genocide legislation.
The U.S. State Department confirmed Tuesday that retired General Joseph Ralston,
a former NATO supreme commander who last year became Washington’s special
envoy for countering the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), had quit
his job.Ralston’s resignation formally ends a painful and faltering process that
has produced no visible results in efforts to expel the PKK from bases in
northern Iraq, from which the terrorist group attacks Turkish targets.… .. According to some, the process had been doomed right from the beginning.
Assuming his job last year Ralston, who lives in the distant Alaska state,
had no constant office or staff directly reporting to him. In his part-time
job, he had been working on an on-and-off basis with State Department and
Pentagon officials who were already dealing with Turkish matters. … ..
Bush appointed Ralson then didn’t give him an office, a staff, with little
or no backing behind him. But in the end it always comes down to Bush’s blundering in Iraq.
US missteps in Iraq have heightened Turkey’s own security on its southeastern
border. In particular, the re-emergence of PKK terrorism in Turkey, where
a soldier dies daily, has produced a non-stop drumbeat of nationalist and
anti-American rhetoric throughout the country in the run up to the July 22
parliamentary elections. The perception that America controls Northern Iraq
and restricts the Turkish army from crossing the border all while doing nothing
to stop the PKK terrorists who operate with impunity in Iraq is widespread.
Bush’s words, “You’re either with us, or against us”
now ring hollow to Turks.
I know the wingnuts are desperate, but let’s not wipe out history and the facts in the process.
Comments are closed.