Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy's spokesperson announced this morning that he will introduce legislation condemning Italy for an act of genocide in its past.
In the mid 100s AD, the Roman Republic launched an aggressive war against the militarily vulnerable city-state of Carthage. Its armies marched into the city, destroyed every building, murdered every civilian, and even sowed salt into the surrounding fields so nothing would grow in them. Rome's brutality marked the largest single massacre of a civilian population until World War II. Neither the Roman Republic, nor its successor the Roman Empire, nor the current Republic of Italy have acknowledged or apologized for this act of brutality. Kennedy said that it is time to redress the wrongs of history. Italy can start with an apology to the current government of Tunisia, then negotiate reparations.
Obviously this is a sham article, but it is not too far off the mark from a real issue. Democrats in Congress have proposed a statement of condemnation against the current Republic of Turkey for atrocities committed by the Ottoman Empire. Turkey rightly refuses to apologize for the actions of another government. President Bush would rather Congress not antagonize one of our few real Muslim allies that is also a long standing democracy.
This becomes a slippery slope. In all honesty we would have to condemn the United Kingdom for their Boer War concentration camps, France for some of their colonial practices, and many others. Condemnations and apologies for historical events make little sense. The current generation does not own the guilt of acts committed before they were even born. Yes this counts Japan and Germany as well. Our sense of justice is supposed to be individual. People commit crimes and need punishment; nations are not culpable to the end of time just because their history has some stain.
The proposed resolution against Turkey is tantamount to forcing an individual to apologize for the crimes of their great-grandfather. There is no point to it, nor fairness in it.
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Add this to the file of "if they had a gun, they would have been fine." In Great Britain, a family was attacked and beaten because they put details of their son's 16th birthday party on YouTube. Over 100 uninvited guests showed up at the residence and demanded entry. They attacked the father and beat everyone else while stealing food and champagne.
A shotgun full of rock salt or wood splinters would have dispersed that mob right away. It would not even happen in West Virginia.
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