Feel good diplomacy

The Democrats have been pushing for a pull out from Iraq as soon as they can manage it. The only difference is when they say they will accomplish such a pullout. Most recently, at a Democratic debate, all the candidates said that they still would keep troops in the area ready to put back to stop a possible genocide. What remains unsaid is that the best way to prevent a genocide is not to pull out now.

But when it comes to genocide that was done about 90 years ago, the Democrats are full of vigor. Now they're pressing for a totally meaningless resolution on Turkish genocide against Armenians during the first World War. All such a resolution would accomplish now is to make Armenians and American politicians feel good. It won't establish the United States as more committed to stopping genocide when it happens in a sovereign nation - notice our inaction in Rwanda and Darfur. But what this resolution would do is upset today's government in Turkey and spur them to take retaliatory action against the United States.

But in Ankara, the Turkish military chief, General Yasar Buyukanit, said that if the full House passed the resolution, "our military relations with the United States can never be the same," Reuters reported. "The U.S. shot its own foot," he told the Milliyet newspaper.

Buyukanit's comment came two days after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan cautioned that bilateral relations with the United States, a key partner in NATO, were endangered. To underscore the point, Turkey has recalled its ambassador from Washington for consultations.

Strains have been further heightened by Turkish military and political preparations for possible strikes inside northern Iraq against militant Kurdish separatists, something U.S. officials fear could further destabilize the region. With troops poised near the border, the Turkish Parliament is set to debate whether to authorize an incursion. The rising tensions sent oil prices Friday to a record high of $84 a barrel.

The stage is thus set for a major showdown, with unknown consequences, if the full House approves the genocide resolution.

The Turkish government has bitterly protested the use of the word genocide - acknowledging the deaths of more than a million Armenians, many during forced relocations, but saying there was no intent to eliminate them. The deaths occurred before the creation of the Turkish republic in 1923.

Ankara's past warnings have not been hollow. Last year, it halted military cooperation with France after French lawmakers passed a genocide resolution.

The Bush administration's paramount concern is that U.S. forces might lose access to a major hub for shipping fuel and matériel to Iraq, a case President George W. Bush made Thursday.

So, for the feelings of self congratulation that politicians may feel by passing their nonbinding resolution, Congress would endanger our forces in Iraq and our relations with an important ally just at a delicate moment. And remember that the government in Turkey today is not the government ruling the Ottoman Empire that conducted the genocide during World War One. Congress would be condemning the actions of a government that no longer exists. Even Congresswoman Jane Harman, an original sponsor of the resolution is now against it.

I originally co-sponsored the resolution because I was convinced that the terrible crime against the Armenian people should be recognized and condemned. But after a visit in February to Turkey, where I met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Armenian Orthodox patriarch and colleagues of murdered Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, I became convinced that passing this resolution again at this time would isolate and embarrass a courageous and moderate Islamic government in perhaps the most volatile region in the world.

So I agree with eight former secretaries of State -- including Los Angeles' own Warren Christopher -- who said that passing the resolution "could endanger our national security interests in the region, including our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and damage efforts to promote reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia."

Passing such a resolution now is irresponsible politics that ignores the reality of the situation today in favor of the feel-goodism of the sanctimonious.