Obama Gonna What?: Armenian Genocide

Christopher Hitchens offers us a little benchmark to see if our President, who tends not to believe in any sort of war except those involving pure rhetoric, is going to be true to one of his many words. We should make the mental note on whether or not he waters down his rhetoric in the interest of making friends on the question of the Armenian Genocide.

President Obama comes to this issue with an unusually clear and unambivalent record. In 2006, for example, the U.S. ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, was recalled for employing the word genocide. Then-Sen. Obama wrote a letter of complaint to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, deploring the State Department's cowardice and roundly stating that the occurrence of the Armenian genocide in 1915 "is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence." On the campaign trail last year, he amplified this position, saying that "America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides. I intend to be that president."

I expect some weasel words to be forthcoming just on general principle. Anyone who is willing to overlook what Iranians are doing in current conflicts - ie killing American soldiers in Iraq, certainly should have no problem brushing off something that happened almost 100 years ago. And I'm confident that he can come up with all sorts of bold and visionary reasons to bathe such weasels in the glow of his version of the future.

But here is just a convenient test of character. So let's see what comes of it.