Serving Up Symbolism on Tibet and Turkey

First, there was Nancy Pelosi's decision to pursue a resolution condemning Turkey for the 1915 Armenian genocide (whose fate, it now appears, is uncertain). Then yesterday, President Bush, Pelosi, and everybody else in between showed up at the Capitol to publicly embrace the Dalai Lama.

Strictly on their own terms, these were unobjectionable gestures. For the Dalai Lama, appearing publicly with a U.S. president is a long-overdue diplomatic coup. Turkey should come to terms with its own historical culpability rather than denying it. And the diplomatic fallout from these symbolic events almost certainly won't be game-changing.

But why now? For the United States, these attempts to embrace two small, historically oppressed ethnic minorities are self-conscious distractions from the terrible messes we've created in other parts of the world. It's kitsch as Milan Kundera defined it: "Kitsch causes two tears to flow in quick succession. The first tear says: How nice to see children running on the grass! The second tear says: How nice to be moved, together with all mankind, by children running on the grass! It is the second tear that makes kitsch kitsch."

In the process of steering our own strategic interests in a ditch over the past five years, America has lost its credibility as an international model for the democratic ideal, as a promulgator of justice. Yet Washington is stuck in a kind of feedback loop of denial over Iraq, Afghanistan, and terrorism, the same tired arguments forever circling, and never engaging, the problems. So our leaders turn to symbolism and sentimentality to convince us that we're still the America we once fancied ourselves being.

It's our own predicament that should provoke some soul-searching about historical culpability.

Comments

[thesimulacra]

You know I find it funny that not too long ago when Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia there were throngs of people foaming at the mouth at the chance to castigate him for being a holocaust denier, and yet when we try to get Turkey to admit they perpetrated the "first holocaust of the 20th Century" (as Winston Churchill called it, years previous to WWII) suddenly we become all pragmatic about it - "why now?" and "is this necessary?"

Why is Ahmadinejad a holocaust-denier? Probably has a lot to do with the political climate; even if he were to believe in the Holocaust as historical fact, he would also know that you can't be a powerful person in the Fundamentalist Muslim world without questioning the Holocaust. So why do our knees wobble when we demand Turkey to acknowledge their own holocaust? Because it's apparently in our political interest not to do so in the same exact way.

I call shenanigans.

[BigBagel]

Hopefully, they'll be other resolutions:
The British treatment of the Irish in the 1840's resulting in over a million deaths.
Mexican treatment of their indigenous community.
Canadian mistreatment of their indigenous population.
etc,etc,etc.....
We're America. We stick our nose in every bodies business, past, present, future.
Why worry about our own present and mounting problems when we can waste time and energy pointing out other countries past crimes.

[yungturk39]

Efforts to pass the Armenian Genocide bill were never about setting a historical record straight. It was an attempt to diplomatically hamstring the administration from conducting further misadventures in the region (i.e. IRAN) by either provoking Turkey into destabilizing Northern Iraq and suspending logistical support for our US forces occupying Iraq, or to get US forces to redeploy to neglected regions of Northern Iraq where Kurds have everything (except the PKK) basically under control. It was to be a wrench in the gears of war that are grinding towards a very stupid, and ill-considered war with Iran. No thanks to the practically-minded simpletons like Murtha, we've sidestepped this problem and can now resume our comfortable pace toward our own impending doom.

Oh well, Nancy. You (feebly) tried.

[THEUNHEARDVOICE]

Ok now that we are on the subject of genocide in turkey!Where my 40 acres and the mule?Stone throwing is in the White Mans Bible!GOD LOVES

[Observer1]

I answered this in another post, but you asked why now? Here's one answer:


The aim is to have a boycott of the Beijing Olympics and to try to destroy the Chinese global influence. If too many people get to China and form their own opinions, America may be hard pressed to discredit the Chinese.

So systematically,the administration has pushed the Pet Food scare, then the Lead Paint scare (although Europe never complained) ,the jobs scare ,the "Made in China" scare, and now the great Tibet scare.

Why in the world would we give the Dalai the CMOH exactly at this moment. Well,China has been advocating more dialogue with Iran and Burma. This also makes us forget Iraq for a few days.

There was to have been a meeting to discuss just these issues, so America decides just at this moment to provoke China with the Dalai Lama.

So China pulled out of the talks and as is their policy, they condemned the US action.

The train to Tibet would be able to move more foreign visitors during/after the Olympics,and you would get a first-hand view of life in that country.

The US administration cannot allow that.All these actions are designed to boycott the Olympics and make China look bad.

And the armchair critics will be manipulated into making mis-informed comments.

Bush and Friends are masters of leading the American people by the nose.How was he re-elected... by using the politics of fear,and we all smelled it.

Bush may be the smartest President ever, because he knows how to fool the stupidest and laziest population America has ever had.

[Binx101]

A cogent and well written assessment, although I struggle with one point - that any of this is the product of Bush's smarts. While there is no doubt that he is the mouth-piece, I fear that his inability to converse on these subjects is the tip-off that they aren't a product of his intellect. Rather, to me, it indicates that his talent is actually, pretending these are his thoughts.

Everything about him, (again to me) including his very odd body language, his primal facial expressions and his incomprehensibly displaced bravura indicate that he is parroting and not reasoning. His dull eyes and light up when he delivers a barnyard quip - but return to opaque eyes, like those of a Mackerel in the fish monger's display case,

So, in a way, my observation is even darker. That is to say, that the paradigm that managed to deliver this very damaged trust-funder into the Presidency and sustain a second term under highly questionable circumstances, are the architects of precisely what you described.

While this most dangerous of times has been a conspiracy theorists smörgåsbord - it is difficult to ignore the fact the best tool to to fool a lazy and stupid electorate, would indeed be - one of their own ilk.

[rmreddicks]

Could be interesting to see what the government of Taiwan does during the lead-up to the Olympics.

[Observer1]

Bruce Willis called it "the Kansas city hustle" in Lucky Number Slevin.

Catch them looking the other way.

[JayWilliams]

Nicely said.
First of all, I have mixed feelings about honoring the Dalai Lama---a truly humanistic and awesome sage. Kind of ironic that faux-Cristian Bush the war-luster, honors Dalai Lama the pacifistic love-thy-brother modern day "Jesuit".

Of course every atrocity should be considered an atrocity...and no one should glorify the atrocity of the Aremenians. But what in the hell does it mean that we are getting around to addressing a 1915 atrocity? It means we prefer to stick our heads in the sand about 2007 atrocities! How pitiful! Hey maybe in 100 years people will squarely face how sorry it was for America to live by wielding bombs and swords all over the world!

[thesimulacra]

It's unfortunate that the popular understanding seems to be that Bush was the one "honoring" the Dalai Lama, when it was the Democrats in Congress who came up with it and passed it, and Bush just signed it and then presented it, as he was required to do by the rules of the CMOH.

[PADDYWHACK]

Call me old fashioned,but the world was a safer place when the USSR was intact.We walked on eggshells and after the debacle in Vietnam had enough adventurism to last till Bushitler came to power.Maybe the only good thing about Putin's power play is that Cheney might think twice--oh shit I'm kidding myself.

[WilliamTravis]

Agreed! If this is the "end of history" I'm not a huge fan.

[rmreddicks]

True, but..., we weren't exactly quiescent between '75 and '03. We can ask the ghosts of those killed in Angola, Grenada, Panama, Gulf 1, Yugoslavia and more. We are a dangerous country that negotiates using the tool of fear.

I think you're right that Cheney won't think twice. It's alright ma', it's only the others that will be bleeding.

[lasthope]

"Is every one in D.C. wacked out of their minds? Here are two of countries most important to American interests in this particular time and we are going out of our way to insult them?"

Absolutely right. Add the fact that now Rice, etc. wants to create a Palestine state at a time they're being run by Hezbollah and you've just got to throw up your hands (if you haven't done that years ago). We used to be the good guy. Perhaps these efforts are the last gasp by this administration before they let loose on Iran. I'm flabbergasted (again).

[thesimulacra]

"We used to be the good guy."

When was that again? Let me guess: 1941-1946, right?

[VicPerry]

This is a thought-provoking post, and I'm glad the author noted that these "symbolic" gestures are unlikely to actually have much in the way of real-world consequences, positive OR negative.

But you know what, it matters to say the right thing sometimes, even if you are doing lots of other wrong things. Americans are too self-congratulatory for sure. But American self-congratulation and the undeniable kitsch that accompanies it is still never as large a problem as America's sense of victimhood.

So, far more suspicious than this right now: America's sudden obsession with illegal immigration. We've made a mess of the world, of our democracy, of our economy, and ignored so many different problems while losing millions of remotes in millions in couches, what shall we do? Hey! Let's focus on those illegal aliens. They're victimizing us.

[retarius]

America should learn to mind its own business. What gives the America the right to (selectively) make statements about other countries actions. It lost its moral high ground (if it ever held it) in Iraq (illegal unprovoked war, torture, rule of law etc).
All this selective ranting about democracy: 70% of Russians support Putin...24% support Bush....70% support Chavez etc etc where's the call from demcracy for Saudis, or Pakistanis.
The Dalia Lama thing was a photo op for Bush and Co.

[avergejoe]

The worst, and most ignored!

Gazas Darkness
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/757768.html

Gaza has been reoccupied. The world must know this and Israelis must know it, too. Israel Defense Forces has been rampaging through Gaza - there's no other word to describe it - killing and demolishing, bombing and shelling, indiscriminately.

In large parts of Gaza nowadays, there is no electricity. Israel bombed the only power station in Gaza, and more than half the electricity supply will be cut off for at least another year. There's hardly any water. Since there is no electricity, supplying homes with water is nearly impossible. Gaza is filthier and smellier than ever:

And we still haven't mentioned the death, destruction and horror. In the last two months, Israel killed 224 Palestinians, 62 of them children and 25 of them women. It bombed and assassinated, destroyed and shelled, and no one stopped it. No Qassam cell or smuggling tunnel justifies such wide-scale killing. A day doesn't go by without deaths, most of them innocent civilians.

Where are the days when there was still a debate inside Israel about the assassinations? Today, Israel drops innumerable missiles, shells and bombs on houses and kills entire families on its way to another assassination. Hospitals are collapsing with more than 900 people undergoing treatment. At Shifa Hospital, the only such facility in Gaza that might be worthy of being called a hospital, I saw heartrending scenes last week. Children who lost limbs, on respirators, paralyzed, crippled for the rest of their lives.

Families have been killed in their sleep, while riding on donkeys or working in fields. Frightened children, traumatized by what they have seen, huddle in their homes with a horror in their eyes that is difficult to describe in words. A journalist from Spain who spent time in Gaza recently, a veteran of war and disaster zones around the world, said he had never been exposed to scenes as horrific as the ones he saw and documented over the last two months.

Israel is responsible now once again for all that happens in Gaza.

[rmreddicks]

One quibble only. Israel bears a responsibility to the world for what it has done to Gaza and the West Bank and the people of Palestine. That responsibility calls for reparations and the RIGHT of return. If Israel can obtain a two-state solution at this point, they should pray that it occurs.

[Steamboater]

Try living under the Chinese jackboot and then tell everyone that it's kitsch. None of this is a distraction Mcquaid. It doesn't matter whether the oppressed and murdered are 10,000 or 100,000,000. The award to the Dalai Lama and the Armenian resolution reinforces America's values, something desperately needed because we have a president who's has shit on them during his presidency. Bush was right--for once. The democrats are right--at last.

[rixhex56]

Steamboater,

You said, "The award to the Dalai Lama and the Armenian resolution reinforces America's values..."

Do you understand that hypocrisy undermines any significant meaning when one's actions contradict one's values? Do you really think either of these GESTURES "reinforces America's values" when all of our current actions on any large scale undermine those very values?

If Pelosi wants to "reinforce America's values", there are more important, meaningful ways to do so than teaming up with a criminally negligent president that betrays those values.

[Durango]

Is every one in D.C. wacked out of their minds? Here are two of countries most important to American interests in this particular time and we are going out of our way to insult them?
Whats in the water?
Think what you will about Iraq. Pissing off Turkey is no way to get any kind settlement in the region. In fact Turkey is about the only neighbor of Iraq we haven't scared and alienated.
And Kurdish Iraq the only part that isn't in chaos. Great lets let the Turks invade. That way the Kurds can share in Americas great plan for Democracy in Iraq. With car bombs and suicide bombers.
And lets see China start selling (or refuse to buy) Treasury Bonds. That ought to sink the US Dollar for good.
Get a grip folks. Our national interest is at stake here!
(P.S. I have great sympathy for the fate of the Armenians, Kurds and Tibetenese. Now is simply not the time to be spotlighting these issues. American lives are at stake.)
One bright spot. Maybe Turkey will cut off access to it's airspace forcing the USA to not attack Iran.

[FearlessFreep]

"I have great sympathy for the fate of the Armenians, Kurds and Tibetenese. Now is simply not the time to be spotlighting these issues."

Now never seems to be the right time to do the right thing by oppressed, powerless minorities.

[BamaRainbow]

Um, Durango? How have we "scared and alienated" Saudi Arabia, Jordan, or Kuwait--three other neighbors of Iraq? Don't forget that Jordan was supportive of Saddam during the build-up to the 1991 "Gulf War", even allowing materiel and supplies to be carried through the country to and from Iraq.
And considering the fact that a large portion of the "foreign fighters" in Iraq are from Saudi Arabia, I think it's VERY difficult to even suggest that we've either "scared" or "alienated" the Saudis.
As to the Armenian question, has everyone forgotten that one of the earliest acts of terrorism in this country involved an Armenian immigrant's assassinating two Turkish consuls in LA back in 1973?
Oh, one other thing: They're TIBETANS, not "Tibetenese".

[FearlessFreep]

I thought the earliest US terrorism was by the Ku Klux Klan.

[thesimulacra]

Because appeasement has always worked so well in the past, right?

We're not going out of our way to "insult" them. An insult is when you maliciously attack someone regardless of truth. This is called telling the truth even when it hurts. I don't care about the timing. American lives are not going to be put in jeopardy because we told the truth about the Armenian genocide. American lives are in jeopardy because for the last 6 years, people have compromised on telling the truth and let the power-mongers get away with whatever they wanted. If the truth hurts us, then we deserve it.