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To: RJL
He and the UN were there and could have stopped it, but he was following orders to do nothing. The “following orders” defense was dismissed during the WWII Nuremberg Trials.

That's not really fair to Dallaire, who begged time and again for any kind of support. Instead, he was stripped of all but a tiny token force, too small to do anything except get themselves massacred if they stood in the way of the Hutus. What they were able to do to some extent was serve as witnesses, and their mere presence in some cases was enough to stop the Hutu militias, who were aware enough of world opinion to not want to do anything in front of them. Dallaire worked up a plan to set up safe havens in soccer stadiums, and eventually the UN agreed to authorize troops to the area, but not a single country volunteered to send its men.

If you really want to blame anyone, blame the Belgians. Dallaire had warned the UN that there was a plan to kill some Belgian soldiers, banking on them then cutting and running like the Americans did in Somalia. The Belgians did exactly as predicted. Of course, I guess I can't expect them to have any more spine than Clinton showed a few months earlier.

23 posted on 04/06/2004 3:58:17 PM PDT by Heyworth
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To: Heyworth
Perhaps, but I am being every bit as fair as he is when I read this:

The Western powers bear "criminal responsibility" for Rwanda's 1994 genocide because they did not attempt to stop it, the commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force in the country at the time has said.

27 posted on 04/06/2004 4:05:16 PM PDT by RJL
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To: Heyworth
That's not really fair to Dallaire, who begged time and again for any kind of support.

Spot on!

There is a Thread here about a good article from the NY Times Magazine.

Dallaire paid a big time price for a whole lotta fuc*up

31 posted on 04/06/2004 4:28:55 PM PDT by don-o (Stop Freeploading. Do the right thing and sign up for a monthly donation.)
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