In reading the column titled “Bush and Coulter: Spreading intolerance and denial,” (Oct. 16, p. 7) I came across an egregious error. The resolution condemning the Armenian Genocide (H. Res. 106) is a nonbinding resolution. The president cannot veto the resolution because there is nothing to sign into law. The resolution merely expresses the opinion of Congress. Therefore, it would be wrong to say that President Bush is going to veto the bill. First, it’s not a bill. Second, President Bush cannot veto the resolution because there is no proposed statute to sign into law. All the president can do is lobby members to vote “no.” However, it doesn’t go on to his desk like a bill after it passes; once it passes, it’s officially a congressional resolution. If Congress passes the resolution, it will merely be a congressional condemnation of the “Armenian Genocide.” Nothing more, nothing less.

Further, it is easy to cite the French condemnation of the Armenian genocide. The French have more of a free hand regarding the Middle East and are strongly opposed to Turkey gaining admission to the EU. Declaring the Turks genocidal perpetrators serves the foreign policy of France very well. The U.S. position is more complicated, with a significant number of supplies for ongoing operations in Iraq coming from Turkey and numerous NATO-U.S. airbases within the country of Turkey. Additionally, Turkey is one of the few secular Muslim states within the region and has been a strong U.S. ally since the Truman Doctrine. The United States, and the world as a whole, has more to gain by not passing H. Res. 106, than by approving it. The consequences of the passage of this resolution are severe for both the aims of U.S. foreign policy within the Middle East and more importantly, for the Iraqi people — especially the Kurdish people. Passing the resolution will take one more bargaining chip away from our diplomats and strengthen the Turkish government’s desire to intervene in northern Iraq against the Kurds. This could potentially lead to a new, modern-day genocide against a different people — the Kurds — with Turkish troops crushing any hopes of an independent Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Progress in the Kurdish region, one of the few successes in Iraq, could be turned into a nightmare, further destabilizing all of Iraq and leading to more deaths as the country disintegrates.

What happened to the Armenian people in the early 20th century was genocide on a massive scale. It was a terrible tragedy that no resolution or bill can ever rectify. But we should focus on the present, not the past, and try to protect the one region of Iraq that is succeeding: the Kurdish north. Numerous presidents and previous congresses have already condemned the action of the Ottomans. By officially condemning the genocide one more time, arguably at a critical juncture, we give casus belli for Turkish intervention in northern Iraq against the Kurds. The Kurds and the innocent Iraqi people will be the ones to suffer, not the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide.

J. Patrick Vincent

CAS ’06, GRS ’06, LAW ’09