Display Says U.S. Has Worst Genocide (Crapweasels to the depths of their very souls!)

The Guardian ^ | April 9, 2004 | Associated Press

[quidnunc]

Brussels, Belgium – A display praising the merits of peacekeeping that cited the killing of native North Americans as the world's worst genocide shouldn't be considered a jab at the United States, Belgian defense officials said Thursday.

Defense Ministry spokesman Gerard Vareng denied criticism that the display carried an anti-American message.

The display, shown at the monument of the Unknown Soldier in Brussels this week, was meant to honor Belgian soldiers who died in humanitarian missions.

It included a panel listing North America as the continent of the world's worst genocide with a death toll of 15 million, starting with Christopher Columbus' 1492 arrival in the New World but giving no end date.

The daily De Standaard called the display — that was also covered extensively in a defense ministry publication — insulting to Washington.

It said Defense Minister Andre Flahaut, who has tangled with U.S. officials in recent months, effectively blamed the United States for killing 15 million people "in a genocide that continues to this day."

-snip-

[2banana]

I wonder if Defense Ministry spokesman Gerard Vareng even knows that America was not founded until 1783...

[CatoRenasci]

Sounds like it's time to move NATO headquarters to London.

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[dts32041]

No Warsaw, or Budapest.

[correctthought]

Ergg, Euro-peons, flaunting their stupidity again.

[CatoRenasci]

That's OK, Vareng knows that the "misbehavior" of the Spanish (Latin America), French and English are clearly attributable only to their successor in interest: the United States of America.

Someone ought to remind the Belgians that while our behavior in the 19th century might not have been ideal, the Belgians managed something very close to genocide in the 20th in the Belgian Congo!

[Verginius Rufus]

The United States counts its independence from 1776, not from 1783 (when Britain formally recognized our independence). The Belgians have no room to talk--their record in the Congo was one of the worst of the European colonial powers anywhere.

The pre-Columbian population figures are problematic, and tend to be inflated by those who want to play up the idea of "genocide." Most of the Indians in what is now the U.S. who died because of the contact died from diseases spread, usually unintentionally, by the Europeans. The Spanish were responsible for a much larger number of deaths since they conquered areas which had much larger populations.

[correctthought]

No, mecca, substantial remodeling and relocation required.

[Hodar]

A display praising the merits of peacekeeping that cited the killing of native North Americans as the world's worst genocide shouldn't be considered a jab at the United States, Belgian defense officials said Thursday.

Given a choice, would you rather be a North American Indian, or a South American Indian. Once could argue that the American Indians are not only better off today, but that they are far more fortunate that the Europeans here did what they did, as compared to other similar circumstances.

Granted, the Europeans in North America were moving in and developing this country to what it is today. The native Americans (barf) were at war with each other, typically starving and had not even invented the wheel, or written language.

However, when Spain went into South America, where the Aztecs, Incas and other civilizations had the wheel, trades, industry and they raided them for slaves. The Incas were forced to convert to Cathololism, and were eventually eliminated. You won't find a Mayan, Inca or Aztec alive today. So, who did the genocide again?

[SolutionsOnly]

Incredible. Europe is far and away the bloodiest continent on the face of the earth and they're accusing us of genocide! What audacity.

[dts32041]

Thats cool, but just need to get it out of old europe.

[Publius6961]

The display, shown at the monument of the Unknown Soldier in Brussels this week, was meant to honor Belgian soldiers who died in humanitarian missions.

Yes. Yes, of course I see an immediate connection between Belgians, the traditional butt of French jokes and American indians. Clear as water to me...

[swilhelm73]

Wait...Belgium, the people that gave us King Leopold II are actually complaining about someone else's genocide?

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COMM.7.1.03.HTM

Having just read Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, and followed up on its reviews and what I could find about the Congo Free State on the internet (such as this website). I'm aghast at the democide I missed. It is probably over many millions, possibly 10 million murdered or more from 1885 when The Berlin Conference formally recognized the Congo Free State (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo-formerly Zaire) to 1908 when Belgium took it over as a colony. The Congo Free State was the private land, not a colony, of King Leopold II of Belgium to do with whatever he wanted.

And the massive killing did not stop when Belgium took it over.

And let's not forget that the Belgians helped to create the recent ethnic strife in Rwanda that also killed another million or so.

[xusafflyer]

Hmmmmm...

Stalin
Mohammed and his buddies
Any country in Africa
Aztecs

Europeans are idiots.

[Enduring Freedom]

In every way, destroy and humilate the Socialists at every opportunity.

Don't just think it - do it.

Be creative!

[Little Ray]

This from the folks who brought us the "Heart of Darkness" in the Belgian Congo.

Go figger.

[Guillermo]

Do the Belgians honor their soldiers who died in non-humanitarian missions?

I guess not.

[.cnI redruM]

We need to offer him a literary gift to further his enlightenment. "The Heart of Darkness", by Joseph Conrad, is a must read for anyone from Belgium who wants to accuse other nations of historical acts of genocide.

[Little Ray]

The Incas were bad enough, but the Aztecs were the world's only cannibal empire. Whatever the conquistadors' other sins, eliminating the Azetc empire was a good deed!