"Some argue that recognition of the genocide has become even more problematic now, when the world is at war with terrorism and the United States cannot afford to offend the sensibility of our Turkish ally"
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The line lands like a polite accusation: we all know what the genocide is, the only real question is whether it’s convenient to admit it. Schiff’s phrasing, “Some argue,” is doing Washington’s favorite trick - laundering a hard political choice through passive voice. He’s not just quoting a viewpoint; he’s staging the alibi before puncturing it.
The context is the post-9/11 security state, when “war on terrorism” became a master key that unlocked nearly any compromise. By situating genocide recognition inside that frame, Schiff exposes a moral inversion: the demand for historical truth gets treated as a luxury item, while strategic partnership is cast as necessity. The subtext is blunt: if the price of alliance is enforced amnesia, then the alliance is already corrupting our values.
His most pointed move is the verb “offend.” It shrinks mass atrocity into a matter of etiquette, as if acknowledgment were a social faux pas rather than a reckoning with systematic extermination. That miniature word choice reveals how power prefers to narrate violence: not as crimes, but as “sensibilities,” not as accountability, but as “relationships.”
Schiff’s specific intent is to make the reader feel the trade-off that policy language tries to hide. He’s arguing that geopolitical realism often isn’t realism at all - it’s a cultivated discomfort with moral clarity, justified by the elastic claim that “now” is never the right time.
The context is the post-9/11 security state, when “war on terrorism” became a master key that unlocked nearly any compromise. By situating genocide recognition inside that frame, Schiff exposes a moral inversion: the demand for historical truth gets treated as a luxury item, while strategic partnership is cast as necessity. The subtext is blunt: if the price of alliance is enforced amnesia, then the alliance is already corrupting our values.
His most pointed move is the verb “offend.” It shrinks mass atrocity into a matter of etiquette, as if acknowledgment were a social faux pas rather than a reckoning with systematic extermination. That miniature word choice reveals how power prefers to narrate violence: not as crimes, but as “sensibilities,” not as accountability, but as “relationships.”
Schiff’s specific intent is to make the reader feel the trade-off that policy language tries to hide. He’s arguing that geopolitical realism often isn’t realism at all - it’s a cultivated discomfort with moral clarity, justified by the elastic claim that “now” is never the right time.
Quote Details
| Topic | Human Rights |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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