Recognize Armenian Genocide

During the period between 1915 and 1923, an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered by Turkey. In August, 2000, the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, promised to let the House vote on a resolution commemorating the Armenian Genocide. In October 2000, and again in July, 2003, he broke this promise, giving in to pressure from the Turkish government, and prevented the vote. Now, he will have a third opportunity to allow congress to recognize these crimes [link to a great article by the sexiest reporter I have ever seen].

The United States has long been willing to look the other way regarding atrocities committed by allies. During the 1980's, when Saddam Hussein was massacring Kurds in northern Iraq [link], the US tried to downplay the tragedy, and in fact, intended to improve relations with Iraq, until the 1990 invasion of Kuwait [link]. Only when Saddam became Public Enemy Number 1 did the US finally recognize the severity of the tragedy, and in fact, used it as a partial justification for deposing him. At the same time that Saddam was gassing Iraqi Kurds, Turkey was carrying out similar violent acts of repression against Turkish Kurds [link], but as Turkey remains a strong ally of the US, condemnation or even acknologment of these events is not forthcoming.