While perusing Memeorandum in search of blog fodder, I saw the headline "Congress Must Recognize the Armenian Genocide."

Something about that headline -- the imperative "must" -- almost automatically provokes the question, "Why?"

Having no desire to pick a fight with Andrew G. Bostom, an experienced foreign policy writer, nor any doubt that the Armenians suffered horribly under the Ottoman Empire, I'm nevertheless skeptical that congressional "recognition" will be particularly helpful to Armenians (or anyone else) nearly a century after the fact.

Garin Hovannisian, a recent UCLA graduate and a descendant of survivors of the Armenian genocide, shares that sense of skepticism:

That Congress "finds" the genocide to be a fact makes the tragedy no more real than its refusal, so far, has made it unreal. Truth does not need a permission slip from the state.

As an heir, moreover, of an American tradition of limited government, I am annoyed that the legislature is poking into a sphere in which it has neither business nor experience: the province of truth. It is bad enough that a committee of aristocrats governs the conventions of politics, economics and human rights. We the citizens scarcely need to sign over the laws of nature, too, lest gravity be repealed and the whole race goes floating about the universe.

Garin and his fellow Armenian-American, Alec Mouhibian -- also a recent UCLA grad -- operate the Lucky Frown blog, where most of what they write has nothing to do with being Armenian, and everything to do with being American.

I met these two new-minted UCLA alumni at the Young America's Foundation national conference earlier this month. (Alec blogged about the conference.) Having attended college in a multicultural age when grievance-mongering dominates campus debate -- if UCLA doesn't offer degrees in "comparative victimhood studies" yet, it's probably only a matter of time -- these young descendants of genocide survivors are understandably reluctant to join the parade of identity groups celebrating their status as official victims.

And identity politics is exactly what Garin sees at work in the matter of H.R. 106. "The Armenian genocide resolution is, quite simply, the raison d'etre of the Armenian-American lobby," he writes, describing the resolution as the project of "congressmen with Armenian constituencies."

Congressmen pandering to their constituents? Say it isn't so!

-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor, The Washington Times

So, how's the "surge" in Iraq going?

Jeff Emanuel of Athens, Ga., just spent three weeks with the 3rd Infantry Division, and is not pulling his punches in an e-mail to Georgia friends, posted at Peach Pundit:

I have personally seen evidence that the 'Surge' is working militarily. I have also seen, though, how broken and splintered this country really is, and what a difficult -- and perhaps impossible -- task it is to rebuild it in a way that accomplishes the US's goal of having a stable ally in the war on terror. Certainly the government, and the people, must buy into that goal and dedicate themselves to its accomplishment -- something that has not happened to this point, and something which may in fact never happen.

In my opinion, though, it is far too soon to close the books on the idea of Iraq ...

There is a great deal of information which is not getting out to the public in America -- primarily because so few are actually on the front lines telling it -- and, in my opinion, it is of vital importance that people have access to it so as to make a more informed decision, one way or the other, on the US's involvement here.

Sounds like good news military-wise but, as folks down home might say, still a long row to hoe in terms of developing a stable government in Iraq.

Jeff is an Air Force veteran and University of Georgia student with a keen eye and a sharp mind. Paul Harvey called him a latter-day Ernie Pyle.

Well-wishers may want to drop Jeff a note at InsideTheSurge@Gmail.com.

-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor, The Washington Times