Government sponsored genocide is a far different creature. Said government may try to conceal the extent of the genocide or to deny its existence altogether.

When a government is held accountable -or holds itself accountable- for its actions, it’s about more than acknowledging a wrong. To make a more sound comparison, holding a government accountable is more like *studying* the serial killer; it’s about saying that not only was what happened wrong, but that we the people don’t want it to happen again.

As a friend of mine is fond of saying “Real men stand up.” Governments worthy of respect do the same.

And how come we don’t make the children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, etc. of serial killers follow some schedule for admitting/embracing the fact that they are descended from serial killers?

The political wags hold with Mr. Bert’s analysis – Pelosi’s beholden to lots of Armenians.

However, I concur with Laaw-yuhr that the timing of this is f-ing retarded. When you look at global geopolitics, you have to balance good and bad with useful.

The Saudis are fairly abhorrent in most human rights arenas and were the actual home of most of the 9/11 terrorists, yet we put up with them because we need a sort-of ally there.

Despite all our missteps in the Middle East, Turkey is the one country we should have been sucking up to. They’re the sorta secular Muslim democracy we wanted Iraq to be, have a huge young population that’s fairly open to Western influence, and they’re kind of the key to a lot of things right now (expanding the EU, providing a stabilizing influence in the region).

This message is the right one, but at the wrong time.

Many people believe the Turks are in denial. Most Americans, if asked to discuss how European immigrants treated Native Americans, would understand this natural tendency.

Thus the answer is simply this: without admitting that there was a genocide, allow Armenian tribes to open casinos in the modern Ottoman Empire.

Of course, Japan still refuses to admit its atrocities in World War II. The United States only recognized that the internment of the Japanese-Americans during World War II was wrong in the 1980’s (Congress issued an official apology and gave the surviving internees money). It seems “sorry” really is the hardest word.

I guess every victory comes at a cost, and maybe the cost is not great in this instance. But personally, I think it’s too damn little much, much too late.

On the upside, I’m going to call my Armenian friend to celebrate.