Tim Rutten: Obama's Lack of Moral Clarity on Armenian Genocide Issue

The line between prudence and moral cowardice can be a fine one, particularly when it comes to the conduct of diplomacy.

For Americans, the question of where and how to make such distinctions has a particular urgency this week, as we commemorate the 96th anniversary of the genocide inflicted on the Armenians by the Ottoman Turks. In massacres from 1915 to 1923, more than 1.5 million Armenians were killed and eastern Anatolia was ethnically cleansed of a people whose presence there extended back to antiquity.

What none of the participants at either event heard was a message from President Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledging the historical reality of the genocide. That's because this administration, like its predecessors, is straddling a fine line — one that, more than ever, appears to be a distinction without a difference.

For years now Congress has considered in various forms a resolution that would officially recognize the organized mass murder of Armenians that occurred in the Ottoman Empire's waning years as genocide — something many countries have done. But contemporary Turkey, a key U.S. ally and reliable NATO partner, adamantly objects to such a designation. Rather than offend the Turks, who threaten retaliation if Congress approves the resolution, this administration, like its predecessors, opposes the designation....