What’s Genocide?

Top Bush administration officials are shifting into damage-control mode after a House committee narrowly approved a resolution that labels the killings of Armenians in Turkey during World War I as "genocide."

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State Department spokesman Sean McCormack issued a statement expressing "regret" for the committee's action, warning the resolution "may do grave harm to U.S.-Turkish relations and to U.S. interests in Europe and the Middle East."

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Turkish officials had warned approval of the resolution could jeopardize U.S. relations with their country, a NATO member that has been a key U.S. ally in the Middle East and a conduit for sending supplies into Iraq.

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Gates said good relations with Turkey are vital because 70 percent of the air cargo intended for U.S. forces in Iraq and 30 percent of the fuel consumed by those forces flies through Turkey.

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Translation: It doesn’t matter what the historical event in question actually was – Turkey is a useful eco-political tool! Yet another example of how the modern body politic outright denies reality in favor of utilitarian image. Was it genocide? Who fucking cares!? Language itself is up for grabs because there’s money to be made, power to be leveraged and wars to supply. And all the morons buy right into it. Reality can wait ‘til we’re done. (note: we’ll never be done until we face reality.)

Shayne