A House committee voted last week to send to the floor a resolution that would label the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by Turkey in 1915 genocide. Incensed, Turkey threatened that if this measure is passed by the full House they would reconsider their support of the Iraq war.
The US ships supplies through Turkey from a large air base in Incirlik. If Turkey stopped allowing this the US would have to shift battle plans. All of this comes at the same time the US was working to persuade Turkey to use diplomatic means to deal with Kurdish insurgents along the Northern Iraqi border. Turkey was threatening military use and the Bush administration was doing their damnedest to try and dissuade them.
The Kurdish controlled section of Northern Iraq is relatively stable, the possibility of enlarging the war has been something the US has worked hard to prevent.
Now CBSNews.com is breaking the story that Turkey has fired at least 250 rounds and 11 missiles across the border into the mountains of Northern Iraq. The Turkish government had issued a statement last week that any military force used would be only against the insurgents whom they say have participated in armed attacks across the border.
The Kurds are now calling for American troops to intervene and stop the “crisis” that is evolving. With US troops already stretched thin, having to reinforce a formerly fairly secure area, will be a blow that will potentially cause a setback to the “progress” we’re hearing from Iraq.
Turkey was angered enough that the House Foreign Relations Committee even had a vote on the Armenian genocide issue that they pulled their ambassador out of the US. They had warned that such a vote would strain relations between them and the US and any further activity would further strain relations. The administration has publicly stated that the vote was misguided and that because there are national security interests at stake it should not go forth. Nancy Pelosi declared that the resolution will be heard on the House floor.
This puts the US in a strange place with an ally. We may be needed to militarily defend Northern Iraq from the Turkish assault at the same time we are pissing them off with our political condemnation of the 1915 genocide. One has to wonder if this is what members of the House had in mind when voting on and passing this measure on to the House floor.
The president has not listened to Congress’ input in the way the war is going, we are on the same failed path with thousands of dead soldiers and close to a million dead Iraqi’s, and there aren’t enough votes to override even a veto on children’s health insurance. Perhaps the next step is to make it very difficult to continue major combat operations in Iraq.
This is completely my own inference here and I am in no way claiming to know what is going on in the minds of those in Congress, but it does seem to make sense. With an already unpopular war as far as the rest of the world is concerned, perhaps the way out is to make our remaining allies pull their support.
I do not personally think this is a wise course and I hope that I am wrong. There are certainly other things that can be done to stop the war. The first being to stop funding it; stop believing the fear mongering White House and being bullied into passing spending bills that Congress and the American people don’t agree with.