Turkey

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, has apparently backed down from the resolution she had earlier pushed regarding Turkish genocide against the Armenians in 1915.

Now, this is an idea that surfaces from time to time. Armenian-Americans periodically urge their congress-critters to pass such a resolution.

Just why we should be doing this now, however, was a mystery to me. Eight years from now, in 2015, the centenary of this event would be marked. Marking the event at that time would represent nearly unanswerable timing for the Turks.

Coming now, however, I couldn't help but speculate that Ms. Pelosi was deliberately trying to undermine our war effort. We need the Turks in that part of the world; nevertheless, the Turks are at odds with the Kurds, a major constituent group of the Iraqi nation. And we want the Iraqi nation to succeed. To honor the slain Armenians at this time would be to antagonize the Turks, dissipate any leverage we might have with the Turks, and invite their incursion into northern Iraq against the Kurds.

I see today, however, that Ms. Pelosi has backed away from the resolution. Perhaps I misjudged her. On the knave-fool continuum, I had adjudged her a traitorous knave. I was mistaken. She appears now to be a clueless fool.