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The Daily Show – The Armenian Genocide Meets Revisionism

By Manila Ryce
Published Friday, October 12th, 2007, 6:12 am
Filed under: Human Rights, Videos: Political, World: Asia, Genocide, War, Videos, Society/Culture, World Issues, US Politics

Stewart correctly recognizes the motive behind the denial of the Armenian Genocide by recent US presidents. Here’s a hint: it has nothing to do with history. Senior Armeniologist Aasif Mandvi joins Stewart to describe the deals other countries also have with the United States in order to downplay their most embarrassing atrocities. It’s also mentioned that Congress has never apologized for slavery or the long string of murderous campaigns in the Americas which were undoubtedly the most massive act of genocide ever to occur in history.


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After it was clear that WMD’s were not going to be found in Iraq, the administration fell back on the rationale that Saddam had to be overthrown because he was a bad man who gassed his own people as their main argument. The fact that he had committed mass killings of around a couple thousand Kurds in the late 80’s with chemical weapons he obtained from Western sources, including George H.W. Bush, was now the selling point for the war. The administration freely omitted that last bit of information.


With this in mind, lets remember the first genocide of the 20th Century, when around 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed by Ottoman Turkey from 1915 to 1917. While 22 other countries have acknowledged these events to be genocide, the US has still not officially recognized it as such for purely political reasons.


We’ve already killed up to an estimated one million people in Iraq (which is a kind of genocide in its own right), yet the Neocon logic for specifically being against the recognition of the Armenian Genocide is that in order to prevent more atrocities in Iraq, like those which occurred to the Kurds, we need to stay there by denying a greater atrocity which occurred to the Armenians. So in order to maintain this misguided occupation, we must continue to back Turkey on their immoral denial of reality. Hey, they’ve supported us in our own denial of reality for this long, it’s the least we can do. What a tangled web we weave. It’s disgusting that our government would condemned Iran for a non-existent genocide, but will not recognize the Armenian Genocide.

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12 Responses to “The Daily Show – The Armenian Genocide Meets Revisionism”

  1. Let’s not forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki

    mark h
    10/12/07 at 10:15 am

  2. @mark h
    Indeed. There are tons of forgotten or publicly undiscussed atrocities we’re responsible for. I recommend a “People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn for anyone interested in learning more.

    Manila Ryce
    10/12/07 at 1:09 pm

  3. […] The Daily Show – The Armenian Genocide Meets Revisionism […]

    The Daily Show: The Armenian Genocide Meets Revisionism By Manila Ryce (link) « Dandelion Salad
    10/12/07 at 4:06 pm

  4. […] The Daily Show – The Armenian Genocide Meets Revisionism […]

    How Sh*t Works » The Daily Show: The Armenian Genocide Meets Revisionism By Manila Ryce (link)
    10/12/07 at 11:58 pm

  5. Hello your article is amazing.
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    Be A Super Dad
    10/14/07 at 3:22 pm

  6. Frankly, the Turkish response to our Congress officially, (finally) recognizing the Armenian Holocaust, (100 years later) is pretty ridiculous. I mean, I do get why our administration wants to appease Turkey, what with us using their airspace and all, but come on!

    Someone mentioned the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki earlier. Imagine if, (and I know the Japanese already have a day of memorial for this event, but for the sake of argument, let’s try to stick to the hypothetical); imagine if Japan announced that the day of the Atomic Bombing would be recognized as a national holiday in memorial of the tragic event, and then the USA responding with, “HOW DARE YOU?!”

    Yeah, you’re right. We actually do that, don’t we…
    …

    PapaFigue
    10/14/07 at 11:05 pm

  7. @PapaFigue
    You’re correct in your analogy. What also gets me is reading other so-called liberals lambasting Congress for pissing off Turkey during this time because we need their support to continue our occupation in Iraq. Um, don’t we want that occupation to end? Who really cares if this is a bad time to go against Turkey for their military support? If this puts another stick in the spokes then all the better. Bill Maher was similarly distressed in the most recent episode of Real Time about the timing of this amendment. What he and most people don’t realize is that Armenians have been petitioning for this for decades. This isn’t something that happened overnight. I also feel we have a moral obligation to hold our allies more accountable for their atrocities than our enemies. We have more leverage over Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Israel than we do with places like Iran. We can do more good by critiquing Israeli human rights violations than Iranian violations. Why not use our influence to make a positive change with these nations rather than make war with those we don’t talk to? We have the most counterintuitive foreign policy I could ever imagine.

    Manila Ryce
    10/14/07 at 11:47 pm

  8. @PapaFigue
    Your analogy is incorrect. It is like Russian Government passing a resolution condemning the US for slavery, for systematically eliminating the Native Americans, for bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki. You will be saying “HOW DARE YOU?!” to the Russians, won’t you?

    M L
    10/17/07 at 11:28 am

  9. @M L
    Why would anyone say “HOW DARE YOU?!” to a historical fact? No, I doubt many people in America, other than a handful of conservative dinosaurs, would have a problem with Russia pointing out the obvious.

    Manila Ryce
    10/17/07 at 2:10 pm

  10. Why is genocide important? well, duh… why is there International Law that requires the world to recognize the fact of genocide? Because tyranny is not okay, because mass murder should not go unreocgnized forever?

    Turkey’s supremacist regime would rather sweep its jihad under the rug because it still engages in oppressive policies to its minorities. It’s ALWAYS time to recognize genocide. There is no statute of limitations on murder or mass murder. Unless we’re too cowardly to face up to civilization and its responsibilities.

    J. Stern
    10/17/07 at 8:11 pm

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    The Daily Show – The Armenian Genocide Meets Revisionism - The Largest Minority Video
    02/9/08 at 7:04 pm

  12. […] Meets Revisionism - The Largest Minority Posted on February 9, 2008 by dandelionsalad from www.jwharrison.com posted with […]

    The Daily Show – The Armenian Genocide Meets Revisionism - The Largest Minority « Dandelion Salad
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