Mark Elrod has an interesting entry on the Armenian Genocide bill:

[…]  

If you’ve ever wondered if the Bush administration’s foreign policy is driven by realpolitik rather than a genuine interest in human rights of their citizens, consider the question, “When is a genocide not really a genocide?”

• When it happened ninety years ago.
• When it happened to a group of people that most Americans have never heard of.
• When those same people have no tangible assets or raw materials that effect our economic interests.
• When the perpetrators are an important ally.
• When you can call it something else and get away with it.

Visualize history:

Map of what is now Turkey showing areas inhabited by Armenians in 1915. Turkey has condemned a vote by a US House of Representatives committee branding the World War I Armenian Genocide as such and urged them not to take it to a full vote.(AFP Graphic)