Pales in Comparision

[tw]

Ten years ago this week was the massacre in Bruendi and Rwanda. Both presidents were on a plane that was struck by two missiles. Source unknown. But what followed in the largest massacre in the history of mankind.

As a direct result of the Somolia fiasco, no one wanted to get involved. The aggressors apparently had this all figured out. They said, all we need do is kill 10 whites and the rest will leave. They even got the number correct. Ten Belgium soldiers were killed. The western powers abandoned their protectorates even as the masses of machette armed killers massed on the ridges above - just waiting for white westerners to leave. It is a story about racism - in a country where two races could not even be distinguished if not for one simple piece of government information.

A few stayed. Those very few people may have saved as many as 65,000 lives by simply saying to the killers, "You will not harm these people". This is a stunning lesson that really was little reported by domestic news.

Most stunning is a comment made by virtually everyone who confronted the aggressors. Variations of "You could see the blackness in their eyes and knew immediately that this was a killer you were talking to". Did they really see satan in those eyes?

Lets not forget the Catholic Bishop would even conspired to arraign for a massacre of those he promised to protect. And the Catholic Church who tried to protect the Bishop rather than admit their man did the crime .

Frontline on PBS will air a documentary on Thursday, 1 April 2004 on this historical event. Remember, the Halocast pales in comparision. What happened in Bruendi and Rwanda is a worst case example of what can go wrong when world leaders just don't understand and just don't have the willpower. Many made major mistakes. And those many (curiously) acknowledge their mistakes in public. Again only making this event so unique or curious. Just look inside those eyes. Curiousity does not do this major world disaster justice. But you should at least know details of this story. Frontline on PBS Thursday at about 9PM. Your time may vary but your need to understand this event should not.

Why did this recieve so little attention from the West, why did everyone just leave? 3 guesses and the first two don't count. Those countries had nothing of interest to offer the US or Western Europe - no special oil reserves, no raw materials we just couldn't live without. The same was true for Sri Lanka (how many here know about the atrocities that have gone on in THAT third world country? Don't all raise your hands at once). The US is interested in fair play and human justice only in countries which pose a direct threat or have resources we feel we need. Everybody else can go to the end of the line, thank you.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Hey, be reasonable. We're just too busy to kill them all, so we just kill the ones that offend US.:p

Originally posted by xoxoxoBruce
Hey, be reasonable. We're just too busy to kill them all, so we just kill the ones that offend US.:p

Actually, I think we are so indifferent we don't even care about killing them (or if they kill one another), that's unless we are offended, of course. In that case, its white gloves and seconds, and pistols at dawn, except that the US side shows up with 120,000 armed troops.

[Elspode]

I think we should all realize that if the US had gone in to stop the African atrocities, we would have been castigated for meddling. If we stay out of it, we'll be castigated for doing nothing.

We're the US. We're fucked no matter *what* we do because, well, we're the US, and we are inherently sucking the life out of the rest of the world from most points of view.

[Pie]

I nearly shouted at a Catholic priest once, during mass. (I occasionally get dragged along to the creepy-god "church" thing.)

He was bemoaning the atrocities in Kosovo. Fine. Then he says (parphrasing) "The world hasn't seen the horrors of genocide on this scale since the Holocaust."

I wanted to shout at him, haven't you ever heard of Rwanda? Of Cambodia? Of the Sudan? Iraq?

Or do Albanians count more, because they're white?

I have never been so offended at ignorance in my life.


- Pie

[Beestie]

Originally posted by Elspode
I think we should all realize that if the US had gone in to stop the African atrocities, we would have been castigated for meddling. If we stay out of it, we'll be castigated for doing nothing.

We're the US. We're fucked no matter *what* we do because, well, we're the US, and we are inherently sucking the life out of the rest of the world from most points of view.

I typed nearly the exact same post but then decided 'why bother?'

[jaguar]

Christ tw, do you have to post the cover of every Economist?

What happened in Rawanda was a classic case of mismanagement. People tried to ignore it and did things way too late.

If anyone is to blame it the Belgians and the racial class system they introduced.

Originally posted by jaguar
Christ tw, do you have to post the cover of every Economist?

What happened in Rawanda was a classic case of mismanagement. People tried to ignore it and did things way too late.

If anyone is to blame it the Belgians and the racial class system they introduced.

Well, there you go, Jag. I think we in the West have the tendency to charge into other countries, create horrendous societal messes (the Palestinian situation is just one obvious example of this, as well as the African situation cited originally in this thread), and then skedaddle on out without a backward glance. We may be able to get away with this for a while, but sooner or later birds come home to roost. Our children or our children's children will pay the price. 9/11 was just the first installment. Americans just don't seem to get the fact that we are not exactly beloved by other countries and that there's a good reason for this.

As for what other posters noted about the US being damned if it does and damned if it doesn't, our leaders could avoid this by cutting the hypocrisy when we do interfere with the internal workings of other nations. We don't do it for "their" good, we do it for ours. Does anyone really believe that we would give a rat's ass about whatever atrocities might be going on in the Middle East were it not for our insatiable demand for oil? Surely, the members of this board are not so naive!

[Michael Roth]

Anyone look at Uganda lately?

[Undertoad]

North Korea

[jaguar]

It is worth noting that system dates from colonial times, mindsets were a little different and I doubt the colonial administrators had a dad of sociologists to analyze the future impact of their management style.

That said tinpot shithead African dictators have no basis now for blaming internal strife and economic depravity on colonial era happenings. A much better target is current agricultural policy in the first world if they want to play the blame game.

I have indeed looked at Uganda, I no longer want to look at Uganda. Uganda is not on the same scale as Rwanda yet, barely a blip on the Africans-killing-each-other radar.

Er....Ut....Can you point me to a recent example of tribal/ethnic conflict causing widescale slaughter by ordinary people in North Korea?

I agree, Jag, that the blame game is a pointless exercise whether its played by third world leaders or bleeding heart liberals in the first. I do wonder, however, if "Well, we didn't have sociologists then" and shrugging our shoulders and walking off is an appropriate response. There is such a thing as accountability, whether personal or national. "I didn't know any better" is unlikely to get you far in a court of law. There WERE sociologists around when Great Britain ignited the whole Palestinian mess, but our British cousins never seem to learn.

Which brings me to my next point. An awareness of the results of our past actions and a mature assumption of responsibility for past mistakes will help to avoid similar mistakes in the future. This is true for nations as well as individuals.

[Undertoad]

I'm just saying, in N Korea they have concentration camps with horrible atrocities and millions upon millions of dead and nobody seems to care or really notice.

Originally posted by Undertoad
I'm just saying, in N Korea they have concentration camps with horrible atrocities and millions upon millions of dead and nobody seems to care or really notice.

Exactly, my earlier point. We don't give a damn because N. Korea has nothing we want. It is of interest to note that Korea is yet another country where outsiders (both Chinese and Western) mucked around in its internal affairs and then split. The U.S. does still have a military presence in S. Korea, not for humanitariun concerns but for strategic ones. So far as I know, there are fewer atrocities in the south. This is a by-product of our presence though, not its intent.