hitchens bemoaning collusion in a giant historical lie: LAUGHABLE

Sorta the same approach to collusion in the big lies about torture. The Obama/Gibbs approach ("let's be reflective, not retributionist") is in effect adoption of lies like there was no torture, it's not illegal, etc. it was helpful, etc. it should be our choice to prosecute, the ones doing it had good intentions, they did it because they were scared, etc.

1.5 million Armenians count. Seems like after Obama backed Turkey going into NATO he could have the gumption to state the reality of the Armenian genocide.

I'm not sure how any of this could bee seen as laughable. Honestly, I never knew. (Thank your Seattle Public Schools for your lack of any history or foreign affair classes).

That's just really, really sad.

I don't blame Obama. I blame this constant human need to hold grudges and hatreds from the past. The middle east changes daily. New and old enemies are in constant battle. Religion stokes the pot. Pakistan teeters. Iraq teeters. Afghanistan teeters. Lebanon teeters. A president has knowledge and responsibilities that a candidate does not. Not supporting this president gives room for something much worse to take his place. We've already seen the danger in that.

"Can't the Armenians Get a Break?"

OVER MY DEAD BODY!

The most laughable thing here is the armchair analysis from people who are looking to criticize or defend Obama in general, and who haven't bothered to learn the actual facts of the situation.

Basic facts left out of this Slog post:

- Armenians are upset because Obama used the phrase "great atrocity" rather than the word "genocide"

- Obama did use the Armenians' own phrase, "meds yeghern" ("great calamity") twice

- Turkey and Armenia are currently holding peace/reconcilliaton talks, brokered by the Swiss

- The Swiss diplomats managing the reconciliation talks asked Obama to avoid the word "genocide" because they felt it could undermine those talks, which are aimed at long term political stability

So, yeah, I've got mixed feelings on Obama. But I'm not sure it's fair to say he failed to recognize the genocide because he only said "atrocity" and "meds yeghern," and I think it's hart to fault him for at least considering the implications of word choice on Armenian/Turkish peace talks.

Defend or attack the guy all you want. Just please do at least cursory research when presented with one of Slog's screeds that's more about moral outrage than factual reporting or analysis.

@ 2 Turkey has been a member of NATO for years, they are currently being denied entry into the European Union. Europe has always been uncomfortable with Turkey for reasons of racism or not, I cannot say, but they seem to bring up the Armenian question whenever Turkey seems to be on the brink of being economically eligible for EU membership.

Let Armenia, Turkey and EU work this out on their own. We have larger foreign policy issues to address like the Taliban taking over Pakistan.

Holocaust deniers. Shameful.

Obama is (and always was if you bothered to pay attention) a pragmatist. He wrote angry, principled letters as a Senator because he could afford to do so.

He thought about what it would cost to piss off Turkey, and weighed that against having his New Yorker covers removed from somebody's wall, leaving a hole between the Free Mumia poster and the Tibetan prayer flag, and made a practical choice.

I find it absurd for Hitchens to suggest that history itself will be distorted by whatever Obama says or doesn't say. The truth is out there and neither Obama nor Turkey controls the truth. What people in some countries lack is access to that truth, and that's not up to us to change. Unless we want to go remodeling Turkey's society like we did so well in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And isn't it galling for an Iraq war cheerleader like Hitchens to now suggest we can afford to risk one of our concrete, not abstract, supply routes to the troops whose concrete, not abstract, bodies he wanted to see sent in there? Over a purely symbolic abstraction. Easy for you to say, buddy.

It gets worse. Hitler famously told his generals "Who remembers the Armenians?" when he gave them their marching orders. True story.

I guess if the US comes clean about the slaughter and subjugation of the native peoples here in America not thirty years before WWII, and give them back say 10% of the land they stole (including all of the Dakotas west of the Missouri, of course) I'll start worrying about our attitude towards an Armenian genocide that occurred on the other side of the planet and of which the US played no part.

"WWI," of course.

Thank you @6, there's obviously more context and I'm going to read more.

@3 "I'm not sure how any of this could be seen as laughable."

Um, because Hitchens was one of the biggest cheerleaders for the Great War on Terror and the Invasion of Iraq. Guess yr public school curricula doesn't include anything about contemporary punditry...

@6:

I have done my research. In fact, I heartily encourage you to check out Samantha Power's "A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide". Same as it ever was. (I also wonder if Power finds her paycheck a little bittersweet this week.)

There's a word to describe not calling something what it is in order to not offend others: "Chickenshit".

Obama talked a big show during the campaign.
Promised everything to everybody.
Very eloquently.

Your wise friends on the Right said;
he won't be able to do that stuff...

Our credulous friends on the Left ate it up, anyway.

Now we see that Obama does pretty much what Bush was doing.
Because it was/is pretty much what America has to do to get by in this stinking world.

You may apologize any time you wish.

When will an American president call Bush's war a genocide? Over one million Iraqis dead.

Obama made specific promises about that specific word genocide to specific groups of American voters to get their specific votes.

Shameful.

Obamapoligias notwithstanding.

(yes EU not NATO, thanx).

I'm with #8 on this. Refusing to acknowledge a genocide puts our president in the same boat as all the holocaust deniers out there. You may not believe this is such a big deal, but think about it; Obama is refusing to accept a genocide that happened 94 years ago in order to avoid pissing off the country that committed the genocide. Lets compare that to the Holocaust in Germany, which happened much more recently (about 69 years ago). Our presidents acknowledge that genocide all the damn time, and Germany is a much more important ally than fucking Turkey.

We think of people who deny the existence of genocide as repulsive, shameful, stupid, evil people, because turning a blind eye to this kinda shit allows it to continue. Obama really fucked up on this one.

20: Yeah, I'm sure the world's going to be hurtin' big time in two months, after most every one has forgotten about this big fuck up.

@19: The difference is that Germany has acknowledged its genocide and has made some effort at reconciliation with its victims. Turkey has not. The United States was not involved in the Armenian genocide and should not interfere with what the two countries are doing today to heal their relationship other than what will encourage a positive outcome for both. For Obama (or any other POTUS including Bush) to use language that one side regards as provocative would have done more harm than good.

The right and wrong of it is slilly. Obama flat out lied. And that sucks.

Silly Scott.
Stupid Obama.

So Oobaaahma reneged on another one of his promises. what’s new?

Just like he did on fisa, iraq, afghanistan, prosecuting bush for war crimes, etc etc etc

And I thought Bush was bad. I guess the amerikan sheeple get the president they deserve.

As an Armenian I agree with commentators #6 and 21.

@15, "chickenshit" is a real good insult in a barroom in Wasilla, AK, but not so valuable in delicate internal negotiations. Among many other things, Obama's goal here is to bring Turkey further INTO, not push them further out of, the moderate Western circle.

Hitchens can be an interesting and even valuable commentator sometimes, but he's never seen a fire in his life he didn't want to pour gasoline on.

I can't pretend to be surprised. Quite frankly, once Armenia is vital to our national security and Turkey is not, the situation can get flipped.

6 and 8 make very good points, to which I would add: Is calling Turkey on their genocide worth it if it costs American lives and treasure in Iraq? Turkey can make our life very hard there if it wants to. I don't like lying about the genocide either, but this was not a black and white issue for Obama. His first job is to look out for the people who elected him.

6 and 9 i meant

Matt- the people who elected Obama were promised that he would do something. He lied. Even more galling is that he lied with out telling us why. Is Dr. Doom holding a gun to his head? Is he 'saving American lives and 'treasure'? No one knows- he caved to a tyrant.

Looking out for America includes not caving in to tin pot dictators who have been trying to squeeze America in to over looking their extensive human rights abuses since the cold war.

Turkey is a shitty friend- they hate homos, women and minorities. It is time to drop them.

as a Turk that lost most of his family to Armenian mercenaries that ravaged, destroyed and kill any Turk they can find in the Caucasus and Eastern Turkey from 1821 to 1919, i'm saddened that no one speaks about the 3 million Turks that died. I suggest reading Justin Mccarthy or Sam Weems on this topic. The express the Turkish perspective and do a fair job in explaining all angles. The armenian approach has always been one of deception, false documents, and threats to anyone that opposes their view. All their writers and paid handsomely where balanced historians are NEVER cited by Armenians. check out www.tallarmeniantales.com

@ 17 and @ 6:

Using (or choosing not to use) the term “genocide” is significant because it is a legal term of art. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” @ 6, this is why it is significant when a world leader chooses not to use “genocide;” @ 17, this is why the Iraq war is not genocide.

I want to thank everyone that wrote supportive comments. Usually quite a few more crazies such as #32 come out for this.
If you are interested in writing a quick note to Obama and your representative regarding this and urging them to recognize the Armenian Genocide- click here:
http://www.capwiz.com/anca/issues/alert/…

You;ve got it wrong. Armenian gangs murdered hundreds of thousands of Azeris and Turks. Armenia owes Azerbaijan and Turkey an apology and mass reperations to make up for their crimes

@32
I'm sorry 32, but you have your facts wrong. 3 million Turks killed at the hands of Armenian mercenaries?Would you refer to members of the Jewish resistance in nazi-occupied Eastern Europe as mercenaries? There were approximately 3 million Armenians alive at that time. Maybe every single one of them woke up one morning and decided to kill a Turk... before the Turks committed genocide and wiped half of them off the face of the earth entirely. Please, please, please do some research and find out the truth about the genocide. The Turkish government, specifically via its public school system, has been brainwashing its citizens since the dawn of time in order to prevent them from offending "Turkishness." The website you have cited is no more credible than websites that deny the holocaust.