2007-10-11

Turks Freak-Out on the Democrats

Way to go, Democrats. Keeping campaign promises is good and all, but this could be calamitous:
Turkey's government on Thursday warned the U.S. that a congressional bill recognizing the mass killings of Armenians during World War One as genocide could jeopardize relations between the two countries.

In a statement, Turkey's foreign ministry said the country's government "resents and condemns this decision" and called the resolution an "irresponsible act" at an "extremely critical time."

The issue threatened to "not only endanger the relations with a friendly and allied nation but also jeopardize a strategic partnership that has been cultivated for generations," it added.

This resolution, should it be brought to the floor, actually is irresponsible. On a matter of foreign policy, the Republicans are right for once. Wow.

I really don't understand the leadership's thinking on this. It certainly isn't making it through the Senate, with their new "all filibuster, all the time" format. Will it even be brought to the House floor? Is simply bringing up the resolution in committee worth enough Armenian votes to counter the backlash of failing utterly to do something so stupid?

Of course, even if it were a political winner it would be the wrong thing to do. At a time when Turkey is threatening to engage in a Bush-Doctrine invasion of Iraq, straws are not to be applied to backs.

Although this post is critical of Democrats, I'd just like to remind everyone that it was the Democrats that correctly predicted the Turkey-Kurdistan conflict as one of the many reasons not to go to war with Iraq.

2007-10-06

The New Chairman: Admiral Mullen

Peter Pace is out as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Admiral Mullen is in, thereby completing the purge of the Rumsfeld wing of the DoD.

From all accounts, it looks like we'll get a serious change of tone and priority from the new command:

In sharp contrast to the lionisation of Gen. David Petraeus by members of the U.S. Congress during his testimony this week, Petraeus's superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March, according to Pentagon sources familiar with reports of the meeting.

Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" and added, "I hate people like that", the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior.

That extraordinarily contentious start of Fallon's mission to Baghdad led to more meetings marked by acute tension between the two commanders. Fallon went on develop his own alternative to Petraeus's recommendation for continued high levels of U.S. troops in Iraq during the summer.

The enmity between the two commanders became public knowledge when the Washington Post reported Sep. 9 on intense conflict within the administration over Iraq. The story quoted a senior official as saying that referring to "bad relations" between them is "the understatement of the century".

Wow. It sure makes "Betrayus" look like weak tea.

Given that, it shouldn't have been a surprise that, although General Petraeus gave his report just weeks ago, Admiral Mullen felt the need to go to Iraq to "get his own view" on the conflict.

There are other changes in the works:
Seems the incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Michael Mullen, has banned the use of the phrase "Global War on Terror" (GWOT) and has prohibited using it "in any future correspondence," according to a Sept. 27 e-mail from a Mullen aide.
Is he taking orders from the Edwards campaign? Doesn't he know that makes Osama jump around his little cave in glee?