Last night we added an update to the split that the Democrats were suffering because of this misguided, badly timed Armenian resolution that Nancy Pelosi has been so insistent on pushing to the floor for a vote, at the worst possible time, for no other reason than to hurt our efforts in Iraq for political reasons.
The update was that the support from the Democrats and Republicans alike has waned and people were turning away from the bill and withdrawing their support because they realized it was bad timing and it was being seen for exactly what it was, a political stunt aimed at harming our efforts in Iraq, endangering our troops and jeapordizing the recent progress we have been seeing as of late.
Make no mistake, this was deliberate on the part of Nancy Pelosi and the house Democrats.
Worried about antagonizing Turkish leaders, House members from both parties have begun to withdraw their support from a resolution supported by the Democratic leadership that would condemn as genocide the mass killings of Armenians nearly a century ago.
Almost a dozen lawmakers had shifted against the measure over the last 24 hours, accelerating a sudden exodus that has cast deep doubt over the measure’s prospects. Some representatives made clear that they were heeding warnings from the White House, which has called the measure dangerously provocative, and from the Turkish government, which has said House passage would prompt Turkey to reconsider its ties to the United States, including logistical support for the Iraq war.
Until today, the resolution appeared to be on a path to House passage, with strong support from the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California. It was approved last week by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. But this evening, a group of group of senior House Democrats had made it known they were planning to ask the leadership to drop plans for a vote on the measure.
This would have been good news, had it come a week earlier, but as it stands, they have putzed around too long and the damage that Nancy Pelosi and company cannot be over stated here as evidenced by the next news story from Wapo.
ANKARA, Turkey, Oct. 17 -- The Turkish parliament Wednesday authorized cross-border military operations into northern Iraq to combat Kurdish separatist rebels as world leaders implored Turkey to delay any action.
In the hours before the parliament voted by a gaping margin of 507 to 19 to give Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan permission to launch strikes any time over the next year, Iraqi and NATO officials made a flurry of cautionary, last-minute telephone calls to the country's top leaders.
The vote came just moments after President Bush in a White House press conference urged Turkey to continue talking to Iraq officials about the situation and to not move troops against the rebels.
"We are making it very clear to Turkey that we don't think it is in their interests to send troops into Iraq," Bush told reporters. " . . . There's a better way to deal with the issue than having the Turks send massive troops into the country."
Bet your last dollar that this is the best news Nancy & Co. can hear and I hope they are proud of themselves.
As Captain's Quarters says:
The overwhelming vote to authorize the invasion demonstrates the declining influence of the US with its NATO partner and Middle East ally, a situation exacerbated by the Congressional effort to censure Turkey over a genocide from a century ago...
[...]
It goes without saying that we would have had more influence on the situation in Turkey had Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in Congress made themselves the arbiter of the Armenian genocide of 1915. If the troops cross the border, we can thank Pelosi and her colleagues for reducing our ability to avoid a shooting war that could cost thousands of lives here and now.
What Pelosi and crew have done has deliberately and willfully alienated us from our ally, one we depend on, and in doing so, she has endangered our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Because of their irresponsibility, now the diplomats have to go and redouble their efforts to fix the damage that has been done with our ally, Turkey.
Lets hope it is not too late.
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