The Armenian genocide

News today that Turkey is recalling it’s ambassador to the United States over a resolution in Congress labeling the killing of at LEAST 300,000 Armenians a “genocide”.

Turkey is one of our closest allies in the Middle East, and apparently their airspace has been a crucial component for us in the war on Iraq. Should we really threaten that relationship over something that happened 90 years ago!?

My leaning is yes, if it’s the right thing to do, if it’s truly a genocide, we should call it such and deal with the consequences. The problem, of course, is that I personally will bear little of the consequences of this action. In fact, the ones affected most are likely to be our troops that are already in harm’s way in Iraq. And while that is as good a reason there is to give us pause, I still feel we have to do the right thing. The words of Adolf Hitler, of all people, are quite enlightening on just why I feel that way…

Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formation in readiness — for the present only in the East — with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space [Lebensraum] which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?