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In Rwanda, the United States did not simply not intervene. It also used its considerable power to discourage other Western powers from intervening. At the height of the carnage, when Belgium lost 10 peacekeepers, the United States demanded a total United Nations withdrawal. Some African countries objected, and eventually Washington settled for a severe cutback in the 2,500-man United Nations force. The commander of the force in Kigali, Maj. Gen. Roméo Dallaire of Canada, who had asked for 5,000 troops, was left with 270.

Incredible.

While the Times at least covers this, no fault is given to Half-Bright ("Me? Jewish?") or Clinton (the first black president). Can you ever imagine for a minute if this atrocity happened on a Republican's watch? The Times and CBS and the rest would still be running daily stories...the phony b*stards.

As an aside, the History Channel (aka History Cliff Notes Channel) had a show on last night called "Rwanda: Do Scars Ever Heal". The show states, in passing, that the French helped train the paramilitary Hutu units that did a lions share of the slaughtering. Additionally, Kofi Annan was responsible for the draw down in UN forces that you mentioned. The whole episode is completely unbelievable.

It was nice to the Belgian troops taking a knife to a UN blue beret and shredding it, as they left Rwanda; ashamed for the powers that be.

Actually watched this story on the History channel last pm. It was scathing, not so much in what it said about the clinton administration, and un, but just what it showed. ex. a clinton official, avoiding the genocide terminology, in bureaucratspeak, Albright discussing the necessity for careful consideration of other commitments. And the annan refusal to respond. It was breathtaking.

And while there was little repetition of the words, "clinton administration" (actually can't recall that construct used once) it was all the more damning cause at the end its namelessness kind of made its evil even more apparent.

The man in charge of "peacekeeping" missions at the UN at the time was none other than Kofi Annan. Anna's office ordered the UN forces at the time to withdraw from confrontation. The Belgians who were killed had previously surrendered without firing a shot and were later murdered in cold blood. How can anyone look to the UN for moral authority?

The sad truth is that no one will stand up for victims of genocide. As long as the killing does not spread across international borders, a government may kill as many of its own people as it wants without any consequences. See the history of Turkey, The soviet Union, Germany, Cambodia, Rwanda etc. Today in Darfur and in Bumra people are being killed, villages are burned, women raped, crops are destroyed in order to wipe out whole groups of people. These victims are innocent. They are not being killed for what they have done but for who they are.

It is sad that in the 21 century, so much of the world still lives in such savagery. Take a few seconds today and thank God that you live in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

A couple of weeks ago I had a very moving experience that truly broke my heart.
I teach classes at a small college and have had a young woman from Africa as one of my students. She is very charming, articulate and pretty. I was chatting with her after class and asked where in Africa she came from. And sort of shyly she said Rwanda. She then told me her story of the nightmare.
Her parents were from different tribes. Her father Tutsi and her mother Hutu. She said for much of her life, it did not matter, that the two tribes got along. Then she said the nightmare began when Tutsis who had been living in Uganda started arriving in droves. When the massacre began, they broke into her family's house and in front of her ordered her father to kill her mother. He refused. They beat him to death and then killed her mother. She was raped and slashed and left for dead. Eventually she was found by relief workers and saw the nightmare in her town. She said there were bodies everywhere and the people living in the town were all strangers. She said then the reprisals against Tutsis came.
The only living relations she has left are members of her mother's family but they won't speak to her because she is half Tutsi. Catholic relief workers helped her come to this country and she is here on a student visa. She has been denied political asylum so now her greatest fear is what will happen when she graduates.