[Peace-discuss] genocide - was - We all make mistakes...even Howard Zinn.

[n.dahlheim at mchsi.com]

As usual, I think your analysis is poignant and pithy.


----------------------  Original Message:  ---------------------
From:    "John W." <jbw292002 at gmail.com>
To:      Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com>, Peace Discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] genocide - was - We all make mistakes...even Howard Zinn. 
Date:    Thu, 30 Aug 2007 03:09:39 +0000

> At 11:07 AM 8/28/2007, Ricky Baldwin wrote:
> 
> >Thanks for passing this along, Mort-
> >
> >It's interesting how we use the word 'genocide' to
> >mean different things.  I wonder if we sometimes
> >search for a way to emphasize that killing huge
> >numbers of people is damnable, disgusting and
> >horrible, because we get so used to hearing of big
> >numbers of deaths, and we're afraid that others aren't
> >suitably upset by it.
> >
> >I've just finished Gerard Prunier's "Darfur: The
> >Ambiguous Genocide", for example, which was very badly
> >proofed and a little too condensed in places, but
> >contained some valuable information and analysis
> >(although he never really says exactly what he thinks
> >should be DONE).
> >
> >Anyway, Prunier discusses the international legal
> >definition of "the big-g word" - and its implications
> >for action - as well as offering his own, without
> >wasting too much time on semantics.  He points out
> >that, although Darfur doesn't fit his own definition
> >of genocide, and a lot of other mass killings don't,
> >we are still talking about hundreds of thousands of
> >deaths, over a million refugees, etc. - all horrific
> >and (should be) intolerable.
> >
> >I'm not sure that it even makes a lot of sense to
> >label as genocide, actually, some of the mass killings
> >that Herman (rightly) demands recognition for below.
> >But it's disturbing to deny these heinous crimes the
> >label, perhaps because somehow killing hundreds of
> >thousands or millions of people, and letting millions
> >more die of starvation and disease, or live out their
> >lives in madness, as amputees, people without a
> >community, etc., has somehow become less bad when we
> >don't call it genocide.  Almost, that's life.
> >
> >It's almost as if we think the main issue is the
> >*purpose* of the slaughter.  But I wonder if we really
> >believe that.
> 
> 
> Who is "we"?  The purpose of the slaughter is always defined by the 
> perpetrator(s) of the slaughter.  And it's invariably some lofty, noble 
> purpose, no matter how gruesome the slaughter.  History sometimes corrects 
> the original premise, and sometimes not.  It depends on who's writing the 
> history.
> 
> There is truly nothing new under the sun.
> 
> What difference does it all make, anyway?  In the article Roger Epperson 
> posted on Blackwater, immediately following this one, to most folks 
> Blackwater represents jobs, financial security.  They're not thinking about 
> the legal and moral implications of a mercenary private army.  Only when 
> it's too late will they realize what they were silently complicit with...if 
> ever.
> 
> I still say, and will say until my dying breath, that the only people who 
> ever learn anything from history are a tiny minority who are relatively 
> powerless to affect history.
> 
> 
> 
> >The Administration likes to tell us, as Zinn points
> >out in this NYT letter, how "accidental" so much death
> >and destruction was.  The Khartoum govt tells us they
> >didn't mean for the Janjawiid militia to raze the
> >Baggara villages and massacre civilians when they
> >armed them.  Libya and Chad and the CIA probably
> >didn't intend that either, when they made Darfur their
> >playground.  Does this matter to the people there?
> >
> >Is this genocide the US is perpetrating on Iraq?  I
> >wouldn't call it that, but that doesn't mean we should
> >let our politicians dismiss the brutal criminality of
> >it.
> 
> Precisely.  Genocide is just a word, but the brutal criminality is very real.
> 
> 
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