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Last month, all three networks led with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, notorious for his questions about the genocide of Jews during World War II. Now only NBC assigned a reporter to the pressure by President George Bush on Congress to refrain from condemning the genocide of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Andrea Mitchell described the controversy over "a non-binding, symbolic vote, condemning a massacre of Armenians that took place almost a century ago by a Turkish government that no longer exists." Mitchell reminded us that then-candidate Bush had offered the following pledge during Campaign 2000: "If elected President I would ensure that our nation properly recognizes the tragic suffering of the Armenian people." Yet now he is lobbying for Congress not to condemn it as genocide. Mitchell explained that such a resolution offends the current republican government in Ankara, threatening Turkey's alliance with the United States. She noted that Turkey's tanks are massing along the border with Iraqi Kurdistan "preparing to shut down bases used by Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq." Turkey is also "the supply route for 70% of the military's air cargo to Iraq."
So in order to pursue its interests in Iraq, the United States is prepared to tolerate genocide denial by one of Iraq's neighbors.
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