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The Dems Lose Again
Harry and Nancy look like losers, again:
Support For Armenian Genocide Measure Wanes In Washington
WASHINGTON, October 18, 2007 (RFE/RL) — U.S. congressional support appears to be fading for a controversial resolution that defines the mass killing of Armenians during the final throes of the Ottoman Empire as genocide.
. . . The resolution had appeared to have the necessary backing from Democrats to win passage in the full House of Representatives. But on October 17, a group of prominent Democrats suddenly withdrew their support.
They urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Democrat, California) not to go ahead with her plan to bring the measure to a full House vote. The group included Florida Representative Bob Wexler, who said the issue is not about Turkey or Armenia, but about the United States. Congress, he said, has a responsibility to act in the best interest of its soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that means protecting U.S.-Turkish relations.
“What we are asking is our own leadership to do what is right for the American, national, and strategic interest,” Wexler told a news conference. “This is an extremely difficult issue. All of us feel extraordinary sympathy with the plight and the catastrophic death that the Armenian community suffered in the World War I period. But our responsibility, the bottom line, is to do what is right for our national security, well being of our troops.”
Also withdrawing his support for the resolution was Pennsylvania Representative John Murtha, a leading opponent of the Iraq war. Murtha said the United States needs all the help it can get in the Middle East and should not be risking the support of a key ally. “You take Iraq, we’ve got a coalition of the willing — there’s nobody left,” Murtha said. “We need every ally we can get. They’re important to our effort in Iraq. We’ve got 160,000 troops in Iraq. This is important to the U.S. effort in Iraq, period.”