10/18/07
Doug Lamborn's foreign policy follies
Yesterday, in discussing the diminishing support in Congress for a resolution describing the killings of Armenians in Turkey before World War I as "genocide" The Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal mentioned Colorado's junior congressman Doug Lamborn:
"It will be a nail-biter," says Rep. Doug Lamborn, a freshman Colorado Republican who dropped his co-sponsorship yesterday. He told a group of bloggers meeting on Capitol Hill that he "had been persuaded that this bill was harmful to the interests of our troops."
I'm not sure just how many Armenian votes there are in Colorado Springs that Congressman Lamborn felt the need to pander for by co-sponsoring the bill prior to yesterday.
Actually, I shouldn't accuse Lamborn of pandering. Even Doug Lamborn must realize that there is not a massive Armenian population in El Paso County, Colorado.
The problem is that Lamborn isn't smart enough to realize the massively negative national security implications of the measure which risks wrecking our already tenuous relationship with Turkey at a critical time.
From the same Opinion Journal article:
General David Petraeus was making phone calls to Capitol Hill yesterday in a heartfelt attempt to dissuade members of the House from voting for a resolution to declare the 1915 massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire a genocide. His message was simple: Now is not the time to damage Turkey's relationship with the U.S., given that two-thirds of our supplies to troops in Iraq flow through that country.
It is obvious to a casual observer of the news that the situation in the border area between Turkey and northern Iraq is a tinderbox with Kurdish PKK rebels making incursions in to Turkish territory.
Indeed, Turkey seems to be preparing for military action in Iraqi territory according to news reports. Some reports imply that Turkey is coordinating with the Iraqi government and some say that Iraq is urging restraint by Turkey. My guess is that both are true.
For example, this story from Australia:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/17/2062459.htm
And this report from Stratfor: "Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has proposed a joint military operation with Turkey, CNN Turk television quoted him as saying during a phone conversation with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Iraq had been trying to stop a possible Turkish military incursion in northern Iraq against Kurdish rebels hiding there."
Why would a Republican congressman co-sponsor a measure which is clearly little more than a Democratic attempt to hurt the Bush administration and to continue their efforts to undermine our chances of success in Iraq?
Because Doug Lamborn doesn't have a clue.
While I'm glad to see that Congressman Lamborn is now on the correct side of the issue, the fact that he was close to supporting the measure is just the most recent piece of evidence that he is unqualified to represent Coloradoans in Congress.
3 comments
on 10/18/07 at 09:32
I suppose the question is who "we" are in terms of telling it like it is and why anyone would think it is important to bring up a 90-year old issue, albeit a terrible one, at this time.
It may be appropriate for Congress to make a proclamation about what certainly might have been genocide in Armenia. But given that it was nearly a century ago, that it is not continuing, and that we have an intense and current need for Turkey to be an ally, the idea of voting on the measure now is simply another effort by misguided Democrats (and idiot Republicans like Lamborn who don't understand how they're being used) to try to hurt this administration and our efforts in Iraq.
As far as the Civil Rights movement, I would note that it was moved forward in large measure by Republicans, at least in its early days. Here's one sample bit of research on the subject:
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/12/13/194350.shtml
If you would like to write up some detailed thoughts on your own rhetorical question, I'd be please to run the article on these pages.
on 10/18/07 at 18:12
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