Edmund Burke once said that, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." This is often quoted as simply, "Evil prospers when good men do nothing." In light of this statement, and 20th Century history, what should be the U.S policy towards genocide? As we discussed in class there have been numerous cases of genocide over the last 100 years from the Armenian genocide to The Holocaust, the killing fields of Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and the ongoing conflict in Darfur. These unfortunate events have provided opportunities for the U.S take the lead and make a stand on the issue of genocide. Do you believe that appropriate measures were taken? How might we have handled them differently?
What can still be done today, if anything? Historically speaking, what significance will our use of the word genocide, or lack thereof, have when referring to certain events? Should the U.S. officially recognize the Armenian genocide as an act of genocide or would this symbolic action, so long after the fact, be insignificant? What would it accomplish if Turkey officially recognized and apologized for the actions of those in power during the First World War? Is anything accomplished by distinguishing acts of genocide from other deaths during wartime, especially one with killing on the scale of WWI? Is this a significant distinction? Is the recent increase in awareness that System of a Down has brought to this atrocity significant? Why or why not?
Finally, what should be done about the ongoing crisis in Darfur? Should the U.S. have done, or be doing, more? Is it in our interest to intervene and if so how? Should we condemn with official statements, impose economic sanctions, or intervene militarily to protect innocent lives? Or, should we, as one of the comments on the video in the previous link declares, "Let the Arabs kill the blacks, that is what the war is about and since it doesn't affect the USA or Europe, it is of no great interest to the the world"? Can the U.S. police the world or must we choose our battles to prevent our military from becoming overextended? Follow the above links to learn more and let me know your position on these issues.
All of these genocides have been terrible. But looking at most of the conflicts, they have been over religion and race. These battles between ethnic groups have been going on for thousands of years, and it doesn't look like its about to stop any time soon. I think that there should be a force that intervenes in these conflicts, but the US shouldn't have to do it alone. There are a few countries out there that have the military weapons and technology to take care of the problems. The US can't be all over the globe at once, and if we had some help, I think that our combined efforts would yeild greater success.
ReplyDeleteI think that that we probally could of at least tryed to stop the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide. It would be great to history if Germany and Turkey would admit to these genocides. I think that staying out of Darfur right now is the right decision because we can't get into every problem another country has because we dont want to overextend our military. The only way we could be able to do that is if we had other countrys help.
ReplyDeleteI think that the people in Darfur really need help before a whole ethnic group is wiped out. It shouldnt be solely the U.S's job and other industrialized countries should help out. But, if they dont we cant be stubborn and just wait for someone else to do it. The U.S just has to get in there and it wouldn't take long to stop the genocide since they are really poor. If we don't help them out people are just gonna think that it is ok to carry out genocides and more of them would happen, just how Hitler thought no one would care since no one did anything about the Armenian genocide.
ReplyDeleteI along with many of my fellow classmates believe that these genocides have been going on for too long and too much that there is not just going to be a way the U.S can snap their fingers and this will all seize to exist. Genocides as Jordan said is primarily centered around a certain race or ethnic group. You cannot just jump in this rival and expect to bring peace and love to both sides of this epic argueement. I do however believe that America can try to do little things that both keep us out of this turn for the worst but, yet still show our support on trying to not lose one race or religion/ethnic group.
ReplyDeleteI think Genocide, along with many others, is terrible, and should be stopped. But stopping genocide, should not be purely up to the US. As someone above me stated, we cannot be all around the globe at once. We have our own issues to deal with, we can't be everyones hero too. War has a purpose, Genocide is usually targeting a specific race or religion for ones own pleasure. Theres a significant difference there. As far as the Aremenian Genocide being reconized, and an apology from Turkey, it would be nice to hear, but no power in the world can ever bring back the innocent people that died during that time. An apology cannot make up for any loss that big. Should the US pick there battles? The US cannot say yes we will help you to one country having problems, and then turn around and say no we cannot help you to another country in trouble. That could make us look like we're discrimnating. It has to be all or nothing, but as I said before we can't be everyones hero.
ReplyDeleteWell, the situation in Dafur is very scarce to me, because I understand very little, but we should help over there, because this will just influence other tribes/nations to outbreak into violence, because it will show them NOBODY is going to stop them. A perfect example is The Armenian Genocide! This is because Christians were killed for what they believed in by Muslims. Jewish Holocaust was annother example, 6 million people were killed, because for what they belived in! Hutus and Tutsis broke out into violence, but millions of Hutus were killed! So the situation in Dafur will just inspire other nations to start more genocides. How do we stop this? Well, killing a man is very easy today, because of the violence, murders, and etc we see on T.V., computers, Ipods, videogames. I think a average American sees over 40,000 deaths in society today. So today its easy to kill a human, because our military has a 81% success rate of turning average humans into killers. I belive I could kill a human, just because of what I see everyday! So if we were to stop this problem in Dafur, it would come natural and easy. Also, it would show other nations that somebody is coming to stop them.
ReplyDeleteI think that if we could help we should do something but not if its just going to kill a bunch of our troops. We can't just ignore the problems that are occuring and it might be better for the people being hurt by genocide if we get involved and try to stop whats happening. I think we could have done more to stop the Halocaust and stepped in a little earlier but by not getting involved as early we let other crountries fend for themselves and not rely on us as much.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do believe genocides are horrible, and completely against humanity as a whole. However, as some of my fellow classmates have said, conflicts between different races and religions have been going on for hundreds of years; we aren't going to be able to just stop these killings. I don't think the United States should be obligated to try and stop the genocides, either. Yes, we have this, expectation as it were, to signify liberty and happiness, but we shouldn't have to be intertwined with other nations' problems. Maybe we could create a force like Jordan said, but we shouldn't be alone. If we're always jumping into war or into war-torn countries, how does that represent liberty? I think instead of always turning to war to solve other nations' problems, we should find a way to bring peace or maybe at least a ceasefire in a genocide.
ReplyDeleteI believe that while genocides may not be preventable, someone should at least try to stop them from occurring. The U.S. shouldn't be the only country held responsible for the policing of these events, however, we should be doing something. We can't focus all of our time and energy on other countries' problems, but we also can't sit back while unlawful, inhumane acts of cruelty are being committed just because a group of powerful people wish to kill others due to the fact that their beliefs are different, or their skin is a different color. In a way it is our jobs as humans to stop these horrible killing sprees and keep them from happening in the future. It is not the sole duty of our country, but unfortunately sometimes it takes one brave leader to gather support for the bigger cause. If America helps certain countries but fails to recognize the great need in others, it makes us look hypocritical. As much as many of us would like to pick our battles, the reality is that we simply can't. Once we help resolve one conflict, we must continue to help in other scenarios. On another note, admitting that something was a genocide will not and cannot persuade people to overlook the fact that in short, the genocide happened. Changing the name and admitting to the mistake is one thing, but it won't make up for those who lost their lives and those who suffered because of it. Recognizing the genocide makes it look as though we've been covering it up for years, failing to show remorse for those who were affected. We should simply acknowledge that it happened in the past and resolve to never let such horrible events happen again.
ReplyDeleteI dont think we should help in this situation. Let them resolve their own problems, so we dont waiste our money. Were already in a recession and dont need to go in deeper to help another country. If we help then it could potencially create more enemies and emilinate allies. We can't be involved in every problem or incident, because if we do then every contry will expect us to help if they need it. Just because we helped an ally of theirs.
ReplyDeletePhilosophic man Burke! thanks for this update.
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I don't think we should help in Darfur. We are already in many other places. We do not need to be heading to Darfur too. Just because we are considered the most powerful army does not mean that we have the money to help all these countries that need us. We can't just hear about some crisis and then have that country expect us to jump on the case. It takes time.
ReplyDeleteI think we should stay out of this situation because it can cause more problems then there aready are. I think we just should worrie about our country and stay out of everyone else's problems. We always get involed in other country's problems when we have enough problems of our own. We help other country's and troops have lost there lives for another country.
ReplyDeleteI think what they did was wrong and they should be punished and the usa should take certain measures to see that this doesn't happen again because it is wrong for innocent people and chrildren to lose their life for something they have no control over.
ReplyDeleteI think Turkey should apoligze for what they did in WW1. I also think it would make things alot easier for the United States because they now know that Turkey is sorry for what they did and now know what they did was wrong.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the genocide was horrible and should have been stopped. I also feel that it shouldn't be just the United States that has to fix the problem. The other countries think cause were the strogest nation that we can fix and help with everything, but we really shouldn't have to. Yes it is horrible and we should have stopped in sooner and helped but it's not just our problem, other countries could have stepped in also. As for the treatment of the people it was cruel and absoutly horrible. If it isn't corrected then they are just going to keep doing it and killing all these innocent people.
ReplyDeleteI feel that we should stay out of other peoples bissiness becouse we go in to help a countrie and we end up making enimies. I also feel that there should have been somthing done to stop and punish countries that commite the act of genicide.
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ReplyDeleteI feel that genocide is terrible, and we should step in to try to stop it from happening. Even if our army is in multiple places we should do anything we can to help stop this horrible tragedy. yes America can only be in certain places at times, but we should still make a statement. If we didn't help with the genocide they would think we didn't care especially if it was in Africa they would think we were racist.
I think that America should do anything it can if it is possible to stop the crisis of genocide. Sadly, the world has not really gotten along with each other. Various religions hate other religions all over the world. The Ottomans hated the Christians and German whites in the 1940’s hated the Jews. I would not be surprised if genocide never stops. The battles and genocides between races has been going on since the B.C. Like I said, America is trying it’s hardest to solve this problem. In Somalia, America tried to help the Somali people during the genocide, Somalia shot down American helicopters and brutalized the pilots. We were concerned that Rwanda, during it’s genocide, would do the same, so we went to Bosnia to help the Bosnian people rather than risking more troops to be killed in Rwanda. This made a lot of countries assume America was racist when it is really not. The bad thing is that America can’t be everywhere at once. We’re sick of going to different countries every decade and this is why many are refusing to help the current genocide of Darfur. Troops leaving America make the country more and more vulnerable. For example, if all U.S. troops were deported out of the country, a country like North Korea, or maybe even an allied country, could easily take over the defenseless U.S. This is the whole idea of Democracy, to make smart choices for the benefit of all. Right now, the U.S. is exhausted but still, a lot of countries want our help, including the very recent Russian invasion of the Ukraine. Honestly, I don’t think we should send troops to countries anymore unless it was really necessary like assisting allies in jeopardy . If Russia tries to take Ukraine, we have no choice, we will have to fight for the Ukraine because it is a threat to our European allies.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about this world at this time is that bad people can get away with things. I think if America can help we should whether it be completely helping the innocents out or taking a militaristic approach. Eventually however we will end up spreading ourselves thin and losing lives that don't have to be lost. All the other major players look toward us when it comes to war. I think That they should look into helping as well. On the issue of acknowledging the Armenian Genocide, I think we should acknowledge it. Even if it just provides a little justice for those lost and those who lost people. Finally my thoughts on the crisis in Darfur. I again think we should do something. However we should have help from other countries as well. We should also hear the voices of the people in the area. if they want help then we should go in and help them. If they dont want us then we should stay out of it
ReplyDeleteI think America has a responsibility to step in and help the people who are killed through genocide. We are the most wealthy and most powerful country in the world and everyone looks to see what we will do. If U.S. does nothing we are sending a message that the evil of genocide is ok. I think other country's will step in if they see U.S. helping. If we name our war american genocide people will realize how severe the loss was.
ReplyDeleteI think we should step in and help other people that are discovered while under genocide. We shouldn't help people that it happened to a really long time ago or punish the people responsible for it. If we punished the people who attempted genocide against the Armenians, we would be punishing the descendants of the people who attempted genocide. Which would be punishing them for an act they didn't commit. That would be like punishing me for something my father did. That doesn't really do any justice and would just make me angry and want to get revenge. So I think we should punish people who are caught in the act or those who recently attempted genocide.
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