We're the good guys. No, really, we are!
Genocide. What a word, huh? My Jewish family fled eastern Europe because of it. Many were killed as a result of their love and loyalty to their homeland. Everyone has a story to tell. Genocide. It's why we're in Iraq, right? Not because of oil. The ones who said if it's not the WMD's, then it's because we needed to kill Saddam or take him or something, in order to stop the atrocities committed on his own people. Well, not really his own people, because he didn't consider the Sunni to be important, though they make up well over half the population. And forget the Kurds, they're all the way up in the mountains, and who really cares about them anyway.
Genocide. As Americans, we go and help the countries where these heinous crimes against humanity are being committed, right? Right? That's what we do! We're the good guys. Everyones hero. Right? Ok...
Rwanda. A landlocked country in Africa with a population of over 7 million. Life expectancy is 39 years old. Infant mortality rate is over 10%. In April of 1994, the president of Rwanda is killed when a missile shoots down his plane. Hutu extremists take over the country. In the following 100 days 800,000 people are brutally murdered. What did America do? Nothing. Not one single thing. As a matter of fact, there was only one editorial in the NY Times and one in the Washington Post for the entire duration of this massacre.
Cambodia. During the period of 1975 through 1979, the Kampuchean Communist Party began a campaign of ethnic cleansing. They decided to "rustify" or basically ruralize the country, driving out the educated and raiding cities, leaving people to literally starve to death. The targets were Vietnamese and Chinese, who relocated here to escape the Vietnam War. Another main target was Buddhist monks and ethnic Chams (Muslims). The death toll has been reported to be as few as 1 million killed to as many as 3 million. Only in the past few years have the UN acknowledged these crimes.
Bosnia. Bangladesh. Armenia. East Timor. These are all countries that were victims of genocide or ethnic cleansing where the US did little to nothing to aid them. But they have one other thing in common. Not one sits atop an oil well.
But we're in Iraq because of the crimes against humanity. Right? Right?