Speaker Pelosi tried to push this through two years ago, only to be criticized by EVERYBODY, even those on the left, for giving in to "the Bay Area Armenian lobby" and risk causing a breakdown of relations with our closest Muslim ally.

Shoot, these guys couldn't afford a phone call with Larry Summers?

He doesn't even burp for less then $43k?

Must be tough to realize, an entire country like Turkey's budget for marketing is less the CitiGroup can spend for ONE Larry Summers Speech...

Did we just find common ground?  I don't get the random Obama dig -- do our leaders explicitly remind the Germans about Naziism every time they visit?   But our refusal to recognize the Armenian "can't call it a" genocide as such seems, at first glance, pretty stupid.  Among race-based mass slaughters, it was both big and recent.

However...  fun anecdote -- I once had a Turkish roommate who was usually polite and low-key, but would go batshit-crazy-nationalist if you mentioned Armenians or Kurds to her.  Loved metal, but wouldn't listen to System of a Down because the lead singer talked about the hated Armenians.  The lesson, I suppose, is that Turkish nationalism can be surprisingly strong, and hard for Americans (or at least me) to understand.  As silly as it seems, there's a real cost, in terms of pissing people off, associated with talking to Turkey about the Armenian genocide, and our leaders need to consider that.

The question is not whether it was a genocide, of course it was.  The question is whether forcing the issue at this moment in time is in our national interest, which I doubt it is.  It feels good to be bold and speak the truth and not give a damn about the consequences, but if it makes it harder for us to accomplish things that matter a lot more, I'd call that poor form.

On the general topic of lobbying for foreign countries, it's always made me a little uncomfortable, so yeah.  There was a pretty shady connection between Hastert and the government of Turkey that got discussed a lot on the liberal blogs a few years back and it was never really resolved satisfactorily.

So, Obama stands by what he said. Good. That shows integrity. The path out of Iraq and Afganistan requires the airspace over Turkey, so Obama diplomatically chose not to use the G word explicitly. That's smart. And KNM is grasping at straws as always, which is pathetic.

Thanks for more examples of what's wrong with your entire thought process, KNM, but really - we get it. You can now go spread your gospel of Republican Obama hatred elsewhere, please.