insert witty title here

Consider this post PG-14...

As you may note from my sidebar, I'm reading "Shake Hands with the Devil" by Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire (ret). LGen Dallaire was the Commanding Officer for UNAMIR: the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda in 1993 and 1994.

Rwanda haunts me.

It haunts me because 800,000 people were murdered in 100 days and not one government - including my own - did anything to intervene. It haunts me because it has already become a forgotten statistic to North Americans.

Rwanda angers me.

It angers me because the same UN Secretary General who, following the start of the US and British military campaign against Iraq, said : This is a sad day for the United Nations and for the world. And who posed for a photo shoot next to the massed skulls of butchered Rwandans, is the same UN Secretary General who personally signed the orders that barred UN peacekeepers in Rwanda from even letting fleeing Rwandans into the UNAMIR compound to escape Hutu machetes.

It angers me because all these people parading around decrying the war in Iraq as "unjust" were nowhere to be found in 1993 and 1994. Where were all the celebrities and protest marchers then? Where were the demonstrations demanding that the UN do something? Where were the folks who thought that letting hundreds of thousands of people be hacked to death by machetes was not in their name?


Well I'll tell you why I think the world was silent.

It was silent because Rwanda had no strategic use to the world
It was silent because no one cared about a bunch of "africans" in a country they'd never heard of
It was silent because there was no threat of terrorist retribution if things didn't work out

Because that's really what the post-911 anti-war-on-terrorism movement is about. It's about people not thinking past their own personal selfishness. It's about people thinking "well if we don't piss off those Islamic militants maybe they'll just leave us alone here in North America and everything will be fine." It's about people not wanting to risk what they have to help others.

The whole "give the UN a chance" crowd can just kiss my ass.

Cowards.




By the way....If you click on my UNAMIR link you'll note that it's described on their website as a "completed peacekeeping operation". Merrian-Webster defines "complete' as:

1 : to bring to an end and especially into a perfected state
2 a : to make whole or perfect
2b : to mark the end of
2c : EXECUTE, FULFILL
3 : to carry out (a forward pass) successfully

I think fiasco would be more appropriate.

Posted by: Christopher / 7:30 p.m.