Blue Devil #4

"The way to virtually eliminate genocide and mass murder appears to be through restricting and checking power. This means to foster democratic freedom."
-Rudolph Rummel

As nice as it is to sympathize with those who belive that war isn't the answer, the world isn't an Edwin Starr song. As long as there are those in the world who believe that it is acceptable to eradicate a people based on a characteristic, typically beyond their control, others will have to step up and intervene to protect those threatened with genocide.

How many lives were lost because Roosevelt had to wait for the attack on Pearl Harbor? How many Rwandan lives were ended unnecessarily because the U.S. lacked the political will to do what it knew was right? Evidence shows that 10,000 U.S. troops could have ended the genocide in Rwanda. But we refused to do it, because of the "CNN Effect" so ably demonstrated in Somalia. The idea of U.S. troops dying for no strategic U.S. interests was something the government refused to consider. As a result, we failed in our moral imperative to step in and prevent an attrocity.

International law, such as it is, defines the perpetrators of genocide as the "hostis humani generis," the enemy of all mankind. As such, all nations have an obligation to prevent genocide and bring those who commit this horrendous crime to justice. Therefore, if I were in charge of the U.S. military, I would adopt what the West Wing referred to as the "Bartlet Doctrine," the idea that the U.S. would intervene for purely humanitarian reasons. It is not just our obligation as the world's only superpower, it is our obligation as human beings.

BD