US CONGRESS, TURKISH PARLIAMENT, MANY QUESTIONS

The Reuters/Zogby poll results are not a big surprise considering Pelosi's resolution attempt with terrible timing. The approval rate for the U.S. Congress is down to 11 percent. This means only one out of ten Americans approve the 110th Congress which has been in business less than a year. This is worse than U.S approval rate in Turkey and much worse than President Bush's 24 percent approval rate. Bad presidency and terrible law-making. This is American perception of Washington.  

 "There is a real question among Americans now about how relevant this government is to them," pollster John Zogby said according to Reuters ( http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSN1624620720071017) "They tell us they want action on health care, education, the war and immigration, but they don't believe they are going to get it." Democrats woke up and have been working very hard in last one week to change this degrading picture they painted; however, people got the message and are angry about it.

  The American public learned from many TV shows and newspaper articles that the members of Congress could not care less for the country but very careful about being re-elected. Democrat comedian Bill Maher criticized the Democrat members of the Foreign Affairs Committee harshly for accepting such a resolution when the country is in the middle of two big wars. CNN, CNBC, ABC and NBC also commented that U.S. was shooting itself in the foot with House Resolution 106. Business network CNBC spared long time to resolution because oil prices hit record 90 dollars by last Thursday and nobody could guess where it would stop. "How can a small lobbying group make us hurt our best ally this bad?" was a fair question commentators asked. American public also wonders why they have to sacrifice their children in a war for the benefit of Israelis and Kurds but not Americans themselves as they have to lose their best allies for Armenians. Turkish public has been asking these questions for years.To throw more wood on the fire, chess champion Kasparov made great comments on HBO channel recently: "Russia does want higher oil prices. Therefore Putin is doing anything and everything to destabilize the Middle East and to increase tension in the global market," he said. And he asked: "Why can't Congress and the White House see this?" This was another excellent question! Instead of easing tensions, the president is talking about World War III possibilities and Congress is debating on last century's conflicts such as Armenian-Turkish killings in Ottoman times.

‘Supporting Israel' can't be US sole Mideast target

  The American administration and public may well start to understand that "supporting Israel" cannot be the only U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and other Jewish NGOs changed their position in the ''genocide'' question after Hamas visit to Ankara and Iranian gas deal. Then, heavy Jewish weight in Foreign Relations Committee worked against Turks in favor of Armenian lobbyists. However, surprisingly opposing votes had the highest percentage ever in Foreign Relations Committee. This time, it was not 40-7 as used to be. Jewish congressmen did not oppose but American public opposed the resolution because Turkey was too important to ignore and Americans indeed are loyal to good friends. If Jewish-American members of Congress had opposed House Resolution 106 on the Oct. 10 vote, the resolution would be defeated in the Committee but would stand strong for the future. On the contrary, Jewish congressmen (seven out of eight except Robert Wexler) wanted to punish the Turkish government as parliamentarian ?ükrü Elekda? said after his visit to Washington during voting. Fortunately, they did the biggest favor to Turkish side by closing their eyes to Turkish misery in crucial times for the U.S. in the Middle East and Afghanistan. This must be the irony of cheap politics. Now, Turks are ready to hit the PKK in Iraq and President Bush is questioning Turkish Parliament voting on the issue. Excuse my critique but is Turkish Parliament the first one that voted on occupying Iraq?* Vural Cengiz is the 204-206 president of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA)