The genocide question

"And some might ask why this is so hard? To call out evil for what it is." 

There has been a very interesting article on the news as of late. It seems our State Department is struggling with the question of genocide (again). The question is simply this - is what is happening in Northern Africa and the Middle East genocide, or just a few gruesome murders? For some reason, calling genocide for what it is seems like a bridge too far for this Administration. 

Like many, I have seen things on the internet which makes my blood run cold. Man's inhumanity to man, coming to all of us live and in color. People being executed for being on the wrong side of Islam. Or believing in Christianity or Judaism. People of all ages, being killed in the most heinous fashion. Saying these are hate crimes is pale to what they truly are. They are genocide. The extermination of people who do not believe as others.

We have called out genocide before - in recent history. Colin Powell in 2004 called out the country of Darfur for being complicit in genocide. It was the first time a declaration of genocide had been made while the genocide was still taking place. And some might ask why this is so hard? To call out evil for what it is. This story gets worse.

Our current ambassador to the United Nations wrote a book about the massacre and genocide which took place in Rwanda in 1994. Remember that one? Where this tribal war between the Tutsi and Hutu resulted in over 800,000 people being slaughtered. Then President Bill Clinton (Devil with the blue dress on fame), "tied himself up in knots" so he would not call this genocide for what it was. According to the Samantha Power book, A problem from Hell: America and the age of genocide, Clinton did not want to use "genocide" as it meant he might have to do something.

I think the same is true today. Oh, we are doing something, but not nearly enough. Not enough to stop this slaughter of innocents. Plus, for some reason with this Administration, the President does not want to sully the name of Islam by having it with 10 miles of a charge of genocide. So the killing continues. People continue to die. And the world watches with the unlikely combination of horror and disinterest.

One would think after the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, the crimes of Pol Pot, Darfur in 2004, Rwanda in 1994, and so forth, we would have learned about genocide. But we did not. Either that or we are just cowards. We can easily put up six degrees of separation for what is happening a half a world away. 

But here is the ugly truth about religious genocide. It will not stop a half a world away. It will soon be here. Then we will not have to watch it on the internet. We can watch it happen right outside of our front doors.