"These people can't even wrap up genocide ... We've been hearing about this slaughter in Darfur forever -- and they still haven't finished. The aggressors are moving like termites across that country. It's like genocide by committee. Who's running this holocaust in Darfur, FEMA?"Those are words Ann Coulter used to describe genocide in Darfur. Kind of makes "nappy-headed hos" sound lame. We can't shrug our shoulders at genocide, bigotry's ultimate byproduct. Unfortunately, many of those who advocate a timed withdrawal from Iraq are doing just that.
"These people are going to kill each other, they have been doing it for thousands of years, it's what they do, and it is the darkest side of humanity."
"I'm not saying they don't feel pain and it's not going to be horrible but it's just what going to have to happen to bring this to conclusion."
Those are words used yesterday to justify our withdrawal. Good people made those remarks, but they dehumanize all of us.
"Blood thirsty savages" is the term many Manifest Destiny Americans used to refer to our native population. It justified a lot of our own savagery.
Now, a similar misperception, is the rationale for an Iraq withdrawal. Their kind is like that. So we should just leave and let Sunni children defend themselves against what another faction views as the ultimate solution. That's what's going to happen and we can't stop it?
Not in my world.
We've already looked the other way once, in Rwanda. Hearing the death screams of children being chopped by machetes is the most obscene thing I've ever experienced - and it was on a nightly news broadcast. It's why I stopped watching TV. We're trying to stop the genocide in Darfur, but need to do much more.
We can't leave Iraq. At least not 'till we're certain it won't result in a bloodbath. Otherwise, there's little difference between the American left and Ann Coulter. A Pontius Pilate foreign policy is the last thing this country needs.
I believe those who say Iraqis will kill each other anyway have a sick and twisted view of humanity. They say I'm a racist. I'll accept that label if it saves a few lives.
Genocide expert Samantha Power suggests that, if unable to stabilize Iraq, we could preempt genocide in advance of our departure by helping residents relocate. We have this obligation, not as Americans, but as human beings.
