The death of millions
Things I've learned or decided so far, just having finished Samantha Power's Pulitzer-winning book on genocide, A Problem From Hell:
-never trust a diplomat to assess human rights or the good faith of a leader. EVER. There have been dozens of Neville Chamberlains this last 100 years, and for some reason acting like a gentleman for two hours at a meeting is enough to trick people with a lifetime of experience
-there is no political consequence to ignoring genocide, because perpetrators use the fog of war to cloud the issue. When things come out unambiguously, a large chunk of people need another five or ten years to believe them. When it finally strikes home, nobody's still in office, and the time lapse leads to charges of Monday morning quarterbacking. Essentially, if you care about human rights as a nonnegotiable principle, you have no chance of getting promoted at all. And if somehow you get elected yourself, you get a reputation as a haranguing nut.
-apparently there was a brief moment in the Seventies when only George McGovern, William Safire, and Communist Vietnam had the right moral stance on Cambodia: invade right then, because a seventh of the country was being wiped out, and even tyranny is better than that. STRANGE BEDFELLOWS INDEED.
-corollary to previous: neoconservatism is a great way to model U.S. interventionism if applied solely to genocide. Unfortunately, that's one thing it never has been applied to.
-An intense human rights campaign is never going to sway congress, but if you do it for a decade straight, people at least get an excuse to use when suddenly U.S. interests shift your way, and at least people know what country they're talking about when they steal your rhetoric. Of course, since the example is Iraq in the '80s...well, let's just say that at least we eventually protected the Kurds...
-Senator William Proxmire was a fucking hero. 3000 speeches to the Senate about genocide, once every workday for 20 years; look it up, and ignore the kooky-maverick-senator "golden fleece award" stuff.
Preliminary conclusion: not only does unimaginable evil happen about once or twice a decade, but the whole democratic system we've got is rigged to let these fuckers do it over. and over. and over.
But at least, maybe, next time, having read this book, someone will see it coming.
-never trust a diplomat to assess human rights or the good faith of a leader. EVER. There have been dozens of Neville Chamberlains this last 100 years, and for some reason acting like a gentleman for two hours at a meeting is enough to trick people with a lifetime of experience
-there is no political consequence to ignoring genocide, because perpetrators use the fog of war to cloud the issue. When things come out unambiguously, a large chunk of people need another five or ten years to believe them. When it finally strikes home, nobody's still in office, and the time lapse leads to charges of Monday morning quarterbacking. Essentially, if you care about human rights as a nonnegotiable principle, you have no chance of getting promoted at all. And if somehow you get elected yourself, you get a reputation as a haranguing nut.
-apparently there was a brief moment in the Seventies when only George McGovern, William Safire, and Communist Vietnam had the right moral stance on Cambodia: invade right then, because a seventh of the country was being wiped out, and even tyranny is better than that. STRANGE BEDFELLOWS INDEED.
-corollary to previous: neoconservatism is a great way to model U.S. interventionism if applied solely to genocide. Unfortunately, that's one thing it never has been applied to.
-An intense human rights campaign is never going to sway congress, but if you do it for a decade straight, people at least get an excuse to use when suddenly U.S. interests shift your way, and at least people know what country they're talking about when they steal your rhetoric. Of course, since the example is Iraq in the '80s...well, let's just say that at least we eventually protected the Kurds...
-Senator William Proxmire was a fucking hero. 3000 speeches to the Senate about genocide, once every workday for 20 years; look it up, and ignore the kooky-maverick-senator "golden fleece award" stuff.
Preliminary conclusion: not only does unimaginable evil happen about once or twice a decade, but the whole democratic system we've got is rigged to let these fuckers do it over. and over. and over.
But at least, maybe, next time, having read this book, someone will see it coming.