Originally published on the CGS blog on October 16, 2007.
Genocide is a word that has deep, deep meaning. As a global community, after the Holocaust, we stood as one and said “never again.”
Some claim that the G-word gets tossed around too loosely and that it has lost its impact, ala an array of Congressional resolutions and the Bush administration labeling the on-going atrocities in Darfur as “genocide” without backing it up with real action .
My colleague Rich Stazinski has posted two items (here and here ) about this issue as it relates to the Armenian Genocide Resolution, which recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives.
Personally, I am having a difficult time with this’sort of an internal struggle with my own brain (which is a terrible place to be). The ‘idealist’ in me says that what happened to 1.5 million Armenians was in fact genocide; however, the ‘realist’ in me says, dude, that was nearly 100 years ago; what about what is happening right now in Darfur, Uganda and the DRC? Plus, why should we alienate our closest Muslim ally (Turkey) in a strategically key region by passing such a toothless Congressional action N-O-W?
The lead sponsor of the House resolution, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), has a well written letter to the editor in today’s Washington Post, taking the paper’s editorial board to task for its recent editorial calling the resolution ‘petty.’
What do you think?
