Sad to say, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the Bush Administration can't even get something like remembering the genocide of the Armenian people right. Referring to Congressional passage of a resolution urging the President to use the "G-word" when observing the anniversary of the mass slaughter bewteen 1915 and 1923, Matt Welch notes:

President Bush won't say "genocide" on Tuesday. In the words of Condoleezza Rice, the administration's position is that Turks and Armenians both need to "get over their past" without American help.

But this issue won't go away. Watching Rice's linguistic contortions in response to harsh congressional interrogation by Schiff, who has become the Armenians' great House champion, is profoundly dispiriting; it makes one embarrassed to be American. Of all issues subject to realpolitik compromises, mass slaughter of a national minority surely should rank at the bottom of the list.

Hitler reportedly said, just before invading Poland, "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" It's a chilling reminder that forgetting is the first step in enabling future genocides. Yet Hitler was eventually proved wrong. No temporal power is strong enough to erase the eternal resonance of truth.

In fairness, it should be noted that Clinton was just as chickenhearted when it came to appeasing the Turkish government on this issue, but Bush and his allies were never reluctant to use the term "genocide" when attempting to goad the nation into war in Iraq, and certainly haven't urged Jews to "get over" past crimes against them.