Never Again?

            “Never again.”  These solemn words serve as a mantra in remembrances of the Holocaust exacted by Nazis against German Jews in the 1930’s and ‘40’s.  All around the world, including in western powers like America and Britain, it was agreed that genocide is an unspeakable evil.  Mass murder must be stopped dead in its tracks.  The deaths of 6 million Jews, and many millions of others (homosexuals, Gypsies, Nazi-opponents) at the hands of the fascists taught us that mass murder and genocide[i] must be confronted by international coalitions. 

            When I write “us,” I mean humanity.  Human beings generally regard murder as wrong.  When one group intends to exterminate another group, whether it is a religious group, a racial group, or a political group, human beings around the world recognize that intension to genocide as inherently wrong.  Furthermore, “we” not only recognize the wrong, but also our own responsibility to intervene and prevent the genocide. 

            However, despite our recognition that genocide is wrong and our sense that if we can stop it, we have the responsibility to intervene, we haven’t.  We in the west, we in America, we human beings have shirked our responsibility repeatedly.  Thinking of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, we say “Never again.”  Yet it has happened over and over again, and every time “we” turn our heads so as to not be made uncomfortable by the grotesque evil on full display before our eyes.  With eyes averted, clinging to our ignorance and creature comforts, we do nothing as it happens time and time again. 

·         The Mid 1970’s, 1,500,000-3,000,000 Cambodians killed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia

·         April-July 1994, 500,000-1,000,000 Tutsis killed by the Hutu government and the Interahamwe militia in Rwanda.

·         July 1995, 8,000 Bosniak men and boys are slaughtered in a few days’ time in the town of Srebrenica at the hands of Serbian soldiers serving under General Ratko Mladic in what is termed an act of “ethnic cleansing.”

·         2003 – 480,000 Sudanese Muslims in Darfur killed by Janjaweed (an Arab, government funded militia) in Western Sudan

More example are listed at the website “world without genocide” (http://worldwithoutgenocide.org/).  The instances of genocide I have listed here serve to show that instead of “never again” we turn away and ignore that it happens again and again.

Now, in 2018, we have the opportunity to once again turn our heads away or to figure out a way to intervene.  The extremely poor Middle Eastern nation Yemen is on the verge of mass deaths. 

This is what starvation looks like.  

The famine is being caused by war and politics, not weather or food shortages.  The Saudis are bombing the Houthis rebels who control the northern part of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.  As many innocent civilians die in the bombings as do Houthis.  The banks in the south, controlled by the Saudis have devalued the currency.  So goods poor people could not afford previously now cost twice as much even paper currency is nearly worthless.  There’s food and available medical care.  People just cannot pay for it.

And what is the response of the typical American to this horrifying humanitarian crisis?  “Where’s Yemen?”  “Houthis?  Never heard of them”  “We’ve got to make sure those people don’t come here.  They’re terrorists.” 

* Let’s do a little aside regarding terrorists because the ones who have spread terror in America are politicians who say we need to fear terrorists. 

Do you realize how much more likely you are to be hurt or killed by a drunk driver, a careless sober driver, cancer, the flu, a spider bite, or a fall than by a terrorist?  Have we declared a war on drinking?  Well, yes, back in the 1920’s, but we decided we like drinking so much, we’ll take the deaths that come with it.  Have we declared a war on cars?  Hell no!  We worship the metal traps we drive around in at deadly speeds.  Have we declared a war on spiders?  Maybe the arachnophobs have, forgetting that spiders eat mosquitos (which are also responsible for more American deaths than terrorist, by a lot). 

Listen and listen carefully.  You are far more likely to be struck by lightning in your life, than to be attacked by a terrorist.  And no one walks around in fear of lightning strikes.  The data is indisputable.  Any politician that threatens that terrorists are going to enter our county through Mexico or through refugee resettlement and cause all kinds of harm is shamelessly lying through his or her teeth, or is too stupid to qualify for any kind of leadership position.  The notion of “border security” is a political ploy to take your vote, not any kind of plan to protect you. 

OK, the aside intended to counter the false, anti-immigrant narratives about terrorism is over!  Back to the topic: genocide or mass murder in Yemen.  It’s happening.  And we in America, who could stop it, refuse to.  We refuse to even acknowledge it.  We refuse to even care.  Look at the pictures I’ve posted. Go to the New York Times article where I got them (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/26/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-war-yemen.html).  Or Google image search “Yemen mass deaths.” 

Then, start caring.  Pray.  Write your congressman.  Insist that America lead an international coalition to oppose Saudi military engagements in Yemen.  Make the phrase “Never again” actually mean something.

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[i] I am using ‘genocide’ and ‘mass murder’ somewhat interchangeably knowing that Genocide has a unique definition.  I will refer to various mass murder-level events since WWII in this piece knowing that not all of them fit the technical definition of Genocide.  For a precise definition, see Rwanda and Genocide in the Twentieth Century by Alain Destexhe and Anthony Daley.  For my purposes the events I reference all point to the continued reluctance of the international community to get involved in conflicts within sovereign nations even when those conflicts involve mass murder or genocide.