Congressional Vote on Genocide of Armenians

Read "Support Wanes in House for Genocide Vote" by CARL HULSE in the New York Times, October 17, 2007.

What a stupid idea for the Congress to spend its time on a 90 year old tragedy. If our elected representatives want to deal with issues in which they can make a difference, let them look at Darfur, Burma, or (especially) Iraq.

Not only would a resolution on Armenia provide no information and have no positive effect, it would further complicate U.S. relations with Turkey at a moment in which they are critically important and very fragile.

The news tells us that the Bush foreign policy is in disarray. Bush just offended the Chinese by meeting with the Dalhi Lama, apparently to please his conservative Christian supporters. The Indians may not ratify the recent atomic energy agreements because a growing faction in that country distrust the United States. Pakistan is facing internal pressures, in part due the support for U.S. policy and in part due to the pressures the government is putting on them to deal with insurgents we allowed to get established in Pakistan's frontier provinces. Afghanistan and Iraq are likely to be huge failures of U.S. foreign policy, ranking as among histories worst. The Russians are showing their disdain for U.S. interests in Putin's recent summit with the Iranians, who are joining North Koreans as hot points in a failed foreign policy. The November conference on the Israel-Palestine peace process does not seem to be on a positive track (although the Bush administration deserves credit for trying to do something useful here).

Environmental policy is a mess, and the scientific community is up in arms over the ways the Bush administration has sought to suppress scientific opinion on environmental issues. Not only has no progress been made on greenhouse gases in the last seven years, the problem has gotten worse. The increasing demand on natural resources from China and India raises international problems which are harder to approach because of the intransigence of the Bush administration and generally of the U.S. government in dealing with environmental negotiations in the past.

The economy is facing huge deficits, rising oil prices, and a falling dollar. The Social Security financing crisis is sitting hugely on the financial horizon! Housing foreclosures are increasing, and one assumes that the construction industry is about to tank.

Domestic policy is still unable to provide health care to all Americans. Our life style seems likely to create a major health crisis, and the government seems to have no approach to that public health problem. Immigration policy is no better than that which resulted in 12 million illegal immigrants, and has not addressed the problem of the large numbers of knowledge workers here from abroad who need permanent status with their families. The income disparities are continuing to increase, and an underclass seems to be becoming ever more permanent.

Our constitution is threatened by the Bush administration's belief in an imperial Presidency. (By the way, Frontline had a very good program describing the efforts of the Vice President to increase Presidential power.) The Bush administration has established torture as a U.S. policy, and apparently continues to hold prisoners without any legal redress.

So, I say to the Congress, get back on track and work on the real problems facing the United States and the world today!