THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 192, October 15, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
GRANDSTANDING HAS CONSEQUENCES
By Dr. Michael Rubin
THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION & OTHER REPREHENSIBLE & UNPATRIOTIC BEHAVIOR ON THE PART OF
CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS: POLITICAL GRANDSTANDING, HEADLINE HUNTING, & LEAKING CONFIDENTIAL
INFORMATION BY PARTISAN DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS UNDERCUT AMERICA'S WAR AGAINST ISLAMIST TERRORISM --
DEMOCRATS EMBOLDEN THE TERRORISTS & ENDANGER THE LIVES OF U.S. SERVICEMEN FIGHTING TERRORISTS IN IRAQ &
AFGHANISTAN -- DEMOCRATS MAKE MUCH MORE DIFFICULT THE JOB OF DEFENDING AMERICAN NATIONAL INTERESTS
IN THE MIDDLE EAST -- DEMOCRATS UNDERMINE U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY
FULL STORY:
Last week, a U.S. congressional committee passed a resolution condemning the Armenian genocide. There is no doubt that
up to a million Armenians died during World War I, although historians still debate whether their deaths constitute
deliberate genocide or are collateral casualties of war.
U.S. House Democrats brought the resolution to a vote, despite entreaties from the White House to postpone it. For
Congress, though, the resolution was less about rectifying history than grandstanding. House Foreign Affairs Committee
Chairman Tom Lantos (Democrat - California) called a vote. It passed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Democrat - California)
pooh-poohed the episode. This was not about Turkey, she explained, but rather "about the Ottoman Empire." Unclear,
though, is why congressional Democrats felt the urgent need to condemn an entity that hasn't existed for 85 years.
Unfortunately, grandstanding has consequences. Turkey recalled its Ambassador; and now the U.S. State Department finds
itself now devoid of leverage to prevent a Turkish incursion into Iraq to fight Kurdish terrorists. Pelosi's posturing has put
in jeopardy U.S. use of the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey to supply our forces both in Afghanistan and Iraq.
If only the Armenian Genocide resolution was an isolated event. It's amateur hour in Congress. The efforts of Senator Joseph
Biden (Democrat - Delaware) to divide Iraq on ethnic and religious grounds threaten to spark civil war just as U.S. servicemen
make inroads in preventing it. Biden's motivation may be to garner media attention. He has succeeded. The problem, though,
his statements get more airtime in Iran and Iraq, where revolutionary mullahs use his pronouncements to convince Iraqis that
U.S. forces seek to destroy Iraq, rather than rebuild it.
The list goes on. In May, 2006, Representative Jack Murtha (Democrat - Pennsylvania.) said that U.S. Marines executed Iraqis
"in cold blood." Overnight, his clip became an Al-Jazeera favorite. Islamist terrorists used Murtha's words to justify
their murder of Americans. Now, a court martial has dismissed murder charges against the servicemen Murtha accused;
Murtha has yet to apologize.
Other congressmen see intelligence briefings as an a la carte menu for chest-thumping leaks, rather than part of confidential
oversight duties. Every leak splashed across the New York Times undercuts the war on terror.
Junkets also have a cost. Basking in the glow of Pelosi's headline-garnering visit to Damascus — again in contravention of a
State Department request — Syrian leader Bashar al-Asad upgraded his support for Hezbollah and his nuclear dealings with
North Korea.
The resolution, while important to the Armenian-American community — perhaps less so to Armenians living in Armenia who
worry much more about economic development — also raises a host of questions about how Congress picks and chooses
which atrocities to weigh in on. While Condoleezza Rice seeks to bring Beijing on board with Iran sanctions — a Herculean, if
not impossible, task — will the House Foreign Affairs Committee condemn Beijing for the millions who perished during the
Cultural Revolution? Their murders — politically motivated and, as far as the historical record is concerned, far more deliberate
and coordinated — also occurred much more recently. Perhaps the House Foreign Affairs Committee will also act to bring Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani and Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Masud Barzani to justice for ordering the disappearance and
summary executions of perhaps 3,000 Kurds during the 1994-1997 Kurdish civil war. This is not to suggest that such cases
should not be pursued. But, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is not the place to pursue such historical investigations;
universities are.
In an election season, Pelosi, Biden, and Murtha, may have no greater goal than to garner headlines, but U.S. servicemen
fighting terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan do. Countering proliferation and fighting terrorism will dominate diplomacy
regardless of who next occupies the White House. There's no time for amateur hour. As U.S. troops continue to sacrifice to
defend U.S. national security, it is unfortunate that headline seeking congressmen seek to make their job that much harder.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Turkey, the Middle East, & the U.S.A.
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Middle East: Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Michael Rubin, a Ph.D. in History (Yale University) and a specialist in Middle Eastern politics, Islamic culture and Islamist
ideology, is Editor of the Middle East Quarterly and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public
Policy Research. Dr Rubin is author of Into the Shadows: Radical Vigilantes in Khatami's Iran (Washington Institute
for Near East Policy, 2001) and is co-author, with Dr. Patrick Clawson, of Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2005). Dr. Rubin served as political advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad (2003-2004); staff
advisor on Iran and Iraq in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense (2002-2004); visiting lecturer in the Departments of
History and International Relations at Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2001-2002); visiting lecturer at the Universities of
Sulaymani, Salahuddin, and Duhok in Iraqi Kurdistan (2000-2001); Soref Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy (1999-2000); and visiting lecturer in the Department of History at Yale University (1999-2000). He has been a fellow at
the Council on Foreign Relations, the Leonard Davis Institute at Hebrew University, and the Carnegie Council on Ethics and
International Affairs.
The foregoing article by Dr. Rubin was originally published in National Review Online, October 15, 2007 and can be
found on the Internet website
maintained by the Middle East Forum, a think tank which seeks to define and
promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam, working for
Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote constitutional
democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly asserting U.S.
interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
October 15, 2007
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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