Monday, September 04, 2006
Remembering Beslan
This post at American Digest is a moving discussion of the author's visceral reaction to a particular photo taken during the aftermath of the Beslan massacre. The September 1, 2004, massacre, which took the lives of 344 civilians, 186 of whom were children, is one of the most despicable of the many atrocities committed by Islamic terrorists to date. It's powerful, especially for parents.
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2 comments:
It is sad. Whenever I see these sorts of articles of hundreds dead, it disturbs me on multiple levels. Obviously it's an abomination, but it always reminds me of the Genocide in Rwanda in 1994 when roughly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were systematically slaughtered by extremist Hutus. The whole world watched and did nothing. The UN was warned and did nothing. In the period of 4 months, almost 1 million people were killed and nobody did anything.
The inactivity during the Rwandan Genocide is especially ironic when we consider how there are signs and symbols reminding us to never let the holocost happen again. Yet the entire UN did nothing. There is a chronology of the 100 days of slaughter and Western inaction. A disgrace and shame upon us all.
Interestingly, the US was so concerned about Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq and yet they let weapons of minor destruction (machete) become weapons of mass destruction. This isn't a an criticism on the US in particular because any country with a small army, including Canada, could have gone in there and kept the peace against machete wielding natives. Yet none of the UN countries acted.
I guess you could argue that despite his inaction in Rwanda, Clinton redeemed himself by acting on accusations of genocide in Serbia in '98/'99. Of course, it could be and has been argued he was trying to draw fire from his indiscretions with Monica Lewinsky. So, perhaps even these efforts are far from noble. What an age we live in.
I absolutely agree, Tom. What's incredibly sad and unforgivable is that we're seeing a repeat of UN (and world) inaction in Darfur. The US has called it a genocide, but up until now, the UN has failed to do so.
Last week the UN finally passed a resolution calling for 20,000 "peacekeepers." But if UNIFIL in Lebanon is any indicator of the efficacy of UN forces, I fear that the innocents in Darfur may have yet to see the worst of it. It's a disgrace.
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