10 Years Later in Rwanda, the Dead Are Ever Present [Bill Clinton mention--sit down for this one]

NY Times ^ | February 26, 2004 | MARC LACEY

[american spirit]

That site tells it all concerning what happens when an out of control gov't. pushes for total gun confiscation. Millions of people have been slaughtered this century because they gave up the only method to defend themselves.....should be a good warning to all the useful idiots pushing gun control in the USA.

[antiRepublicrat]

I believe Bush will do what is right, and if there are indications that a Rwanda-type situation in imminent we will act.

Civilians are already getting killed in the violence in Haiti, just not on the scale of Rwanda. What's the bar to entry for intervention, 1,000 dead? 100,000 dead? At what point are the world police (US) called in to solve other countries' problems at the expense of our soldiers' lives?

[thoughtomator]

Clinton Legacy alert

[Pharmboy]

You ask a good question, i.e., how many bodies should it take to get US involved in foreign police actions? But I can ask you: should we never do anything to help when civilians are being slaughtered by their governements or by armed rebel forces and the populace has NO MEANS to defend itself?

[antiRepublicrat]

But I can ask you: should we never do anything to help when civilians are being slaughtered by their governements or by armed rebel forces and the populace has NO MEANS to defend itself?

I don't know the answer, so I can't say whether Clinton or Bush are right or wrong for their policies of non-intervention in Rwanda and Haiti respectively. All I know for sure is that it was Annan's job to keep the peace in Rwanda, and he failed.

[Pharmboy]

Fair enough. My answer would be that we step in when hundreds of non-combatants (unarmed civilians--esp. women and children) are being slaughtered by whatever armed faction. A policy like that would have a preventative effect on future atrocities.

[rootntootn]

Klowntoon did worse than nothing. The dim spin machine judged this too hot to handle strictly on PR issues. The blood of the victims is all over Klonwtoon's hands.

I've always felt the reason Klowntoon would never release his medical records is because he is a diagnosed psycopath. How else could he exist without going insane for all this crimes against humanity?

[Kay Syrah]

It is repugnant, whether their culture considers it so or not. I've had cultural relativism up to my back teeth, and I have no problem at all calling this wrong

I don't think its really about cultural attitudes towards death. It's really about the total and complete disintigration of culture and civilization, and what leaps into the breach when that happens. Western civilisation has its share of like events(St. Bartholomews day massacre comes to mind) when the mob does what the engine of the state has failed to achieve. So while the Holocaust was a civilised(sarcasm) effort to sublimate the mob's bloodlust to the control of the state(quite successful too), this event too, had its roots in the political landscape. The horror that was released simply tore away the trappings of "civilised" behaviour and showed how quickly they could be shed. I think that is the real lesson.

How does a culture with proper rituals for burying the dead, come to terms with its own impulse to destruction? First thing is bury one's dead according to the beliefs that one has. Resume civilisation as quickly as one can, it is yours. It has failed you,and you have failed it and you know it. If that realisation doesn't hurt you as you reclaim your culture you are no better than those who took your civilisation from you. And you won't find it by looking at rotting bodies. Prove you are better, by reclaiming your lives and rituals and if you forget what happened, you never really knew anything at all. And the next paroxsym is already brewing in you. IMHO

I agree with you, its repugnant, and that's without weighing in on cultural relativsm since the article states that the Rwandans bury their dead, so they are violating their own standards. The horror won't be eased by forgetting one's values so one can remember, or by dishonoring your own beliefs, to honor them.

[Citizen Soldier]

well..... that made my B/P rise a bit! He is still trooling for a photo op to show he "feels" their pain!

[hershey]

Clinton had the almighty gall to fly over there on his round the world victory lap as he left office. He landed (left Air Force One's engines running, if you please), and gave a speech at the airport in which he said that 'Golly, nobody told me you all were having a holocaust over here. I had no idea half a million of you were being butchered. If I'd only known..." Sigh, looks sorrowful, bites lip. You get the picture. Absolutely disgusting.

[hershey]

I'm just your average American, yet I saw and read accounts of the horror that was going on over there at the time. Where was Maxine Waters, now so eager to send troops to Haiti to prop up her boy, Aristide? Why didn't she or the other black congressmen and women knock on Clinton's door and demand that he help Rwanda? Maybe they thought we needed to take care of our inner city problems first?

[VA40]

Am I mistaken or were the one's who were slaughtered the Christians? And correct me here also, but weren't we on the "side" opposite the Christians in Bosnia? (I can never get this straight).