The resolution in Congress branding the 1915 killing of Armenians as "genocide" has me very irritated with those turkeys in Congress. Our national attitude that we are the arbitrators of Good and Evil in the world would be comic if it wasn't so horribly hypocritical.
If Japan were to pass a resolution condemning Hiroshima as genocide, or Germany to condemn Dresden as genocide, or India to condemn the Jallianwala Bagh massacre as genocide (look that one up, kiddies!) there would be an immediate response, a breaking of political relations, and we'd probably do something absurd like call frankfurters "freedom sausages"
Presumably, to the folks in Congress, this is about Speaking The Truth, and that's the extent of it. For the folks at Boeing who will lose Turkey's contract, and for our young men and women in Iraq who will no longer have the support of Turkish soldiers, it's not about Making A Statement, and Sending A Message.
Something that I appreciate about President Obama is the way that he respects the sovereignty of other nations and treats them (well, mostly) as though they were equals. This resolution undermines that, and calls Turkey a small child that needs to be scolded. Our posture as the Great White Father is no longer convincing (if it ever was) and merely shows us up as ignorant, self-focused, and arrogant.
Furthermore, it was 95 years ago, and done under the authority of the Ottoman Empire, which was overthrown in 1923. That is, the Turkish people have *already* determined, as a nation, that the Ottomans were the Bad Guys, and tossed them out. What do we hope to accomplish that they haven't already done?
It seems to me we should be less worried about when Congress passes resolutions condemning this slaughter or that genocide (although I think they'd be better off acknowledging some more recent ones) and more concerned about the folks who want to forget those genocides and slaughters and crimes against humanity. As you said, the Turkish government now is NOT the Ottoman Empire that committed these crimes. The Turkish people have a distance from those crimes that we as Americans could never claim from some of our dark shadows. That means they should not be trying to hide or prevent others from openly acknowledging these crimes, rather they should say "Yes, that happened, and we learned from it. Not only that, but we got rid of the government that did it."
I would welcome resolutions from Germany on Dresden or Japan on Hiroshima or any other of the things we Americans have done that we're not proud of. Don't let us forget the past. Then, if our government tries to move to separate itself from the other government's condemnation, we should criticize Congress and condemn our legislators for wanting to forget the past and let those horrors hide away. If we EVER forget we have done those things, we leave the door open for them to be done again.
Surely, though, we should be looking at ourselves, rather than condemning Turkey, of all countries. We have done enough in the last 200 years that we could issue one of these condemnations on ourselves every year for the next 50 and not catch up. Vietnam? Korea? The Navajo? That's just getting started.
Oh, I heartily agree that we're not really better. We should look to our own errors as well. However, hesitating to make a statement out of fear of upsetting someone or embarrassing them is the way to forgetting those events. The old quote is true, "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."