The Shadow-gloom and Weight of the Sacred

I'm currently reading "A Problem from Hell": America in the Age of Genocide by Samantha Powers. In the book, Powers summarizes the issues leading up to the genocides of Armenia, Cambodia, Iragi Kurds, Bosnia (specifically so, Srebrenica), Rwanda, and Kosovo. Of course, the specter of the Holocaust looms large throughout the books thus far, as does the progenitor of the word "genocide," Raphael Lemkin.

Last night, I just began reading the section on Rwanda. What I find interesting in the book up to this point is how American politicians adjusted their methodology of avoiding intervention. During the genocide of Armenians, U.S. Ambassador Henry Morenthau wrote to senior officials regarding what he call "race murder" but the general consensus was that what happens within a state remains within a state. No national borders had been violated, it was inappropriate for the U.S. or any other country to violate the sovereignty of another country. In later years, administrations would plead ignorance.

During the Cambodian genocide, there where many reports of atrocities, but they all came from refugees, therefore, the authenticity of their testimony was questioned. Reports were heard, but nothing was substantiated. There were other issues: Americans had a hangover from the Vietnam war and anything involving southeast Asia was immediately suspect. Eventually, Vietnam--yes, Soviet-backed, communist Vietnam--invaded Cambodia and ended the reign of the Khmer Rouge government--a Chinese-backed communist government. The Carter administration, eager to build greater economic ties with China, sided with the Khmer Rouge. This was after the genocide that Carter backed the Khmer Rouge, but what I find interesting is that he backed the Khmer Rouge because it was in the best interest of the American economy.

In the future, the national interests of America would be displayed prominently in the process of determining whether or not genocide was actually occurring. This happened in Iraq. This happened in Bosnia. This happened in Rwanda. The simple fact of the matter is that the lives of these people (Iraqi Kurds, Bosnian Muslims, Tutsis in Rwanda) were lost not because we didn't know what was happening, but because we found the dollar amount of their lives not worth the effort.

I'm going to write more on this.