Speaking of interventions that do more harm than good, let’s put to rest the myth that the West’s alleged failure to intervene in Rwanda allowed the genocide to occur. The West did intervene there, with the French arming, training and even fighting alongside the Hutu army, and the Americans arming and training the Rwandan Patriotic Front, with used the occasion of the genocide as the moral justification for its invasion of Rwanda.
The RPF is just another tool of US policy in the region, and has carried the killing into the Congo where it maintains a brutal occupation of enslavement, rape and genocide in the mining areas it controls.
If the UN were sincere, then maybe a UN peacekeeping force could have prevented the genocide, but the US shot down a plan to provide such a force as the RPF feared it would rob them of the chance for a military victory in Rwanda. Despite all the crocodile tears that followed, Western intervention only made the Rwanda bloodbath and the ensuing civil war in Zaire all the more worse.
@Sean: I never really understood the events in Rwanda. So thanks a lot for your info. BTW – can you recommend any good books on the genocide in Rwanda?
“It should be noted that Boutros-Ghali declared on at least two occasions, including once to me in November 2002, that the “Rwandan genocide was 100 percent American responsibility”.”
You might find these two articles of interest as well:
THE US SPONSORED RWANDA GENOCIDE AND ITS AFTERMATH
@Sean: thanks for the pointers! Do you know if somebody somewhere on the Internet made Robin Philpot’s book available for download in a single, ebook reader compatible file format like TXT, EPUB, FB2, etc?
If not, I will do the cut-n-paste myself, and then convert it all to FB2, but I rather not do that if somebody has already done so.
This guy says “they’re only targeting males.” Big whoop. Males were targeted when the U.S. forcibly re-occupied Fallujah too. Targeting males is also pretty indiscrminiate.
And yes, intervention made things worse. Now we’ll have a partioned Libya with client state of the West in the eastern part of the country and Gaddafi in the west boxed in a la Saddam Hussein.
Speaking of interventions that do more harm than good, let’s put to rest the myth that the West’s alleged failure to intervene in Rwanda allowed the genocide to occur. The West did intervene there, with the French arming, training and even fighting alongside the Hutu army, and the Americans arming and training the Rwandan Patriotic Front, with used the occasion of the genocide as the moral justification for its invasion of Rwanda.
The RPF is just another tool of US policy in the region, and has carried the killing into the Congo where it maintains a brutal occupation of enslavement, rape and genocide in the mining areas it controls.
If the UN were sincere, then maybe a UN peacekeeping force could have prevented the genocide, but the US shot down a plan to provide such a force as the RPF feared it would rob them of the chance for a military victory in Rwanda. Despite all the crocodile tears that followed, Western intervention only made the Rwanda bloodbath and the ensuing civil war in Zaire all the more worse.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=3958
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/herman080411.html
@Sean: I never really understood the events in Rwanda. So thanks a lot for your info. BTW – can you recommend any good books on the genocide in Rwanda?
Thanks!
S.
Saker, I would recommend Robin Philpot’s book “Rwanda 1994: Cololonialism Dies Hard.” It is available for free online at
http://www.taylor-report.com/Rwanda_1994/
Also any of Philpot’s articles, such as:
http://www.counterpunch.org/philpot02262005.html
“It should be noted that Boutros-Ghali declared on at least two occasions, including once to me in November 2002, that the “Rwandan genocide was 100 percent American responsibility”.”
You might find these two articles of interest as well:
THE US SPONSORED RWANDA GENOCIDE AND ITS AFTERMATH
http://www.allthingspass.com/uploads/html-238The%20US%20Sponsored%20Rwanda%20Genocide%20and%20Its%20Aftermath%20FINAL%20%5B1%5D.htm
A Deadly Reversal
http://www.monbiot.com/2004/12/14/a-deadly-reversal/
@Sean: thanks for the pointers! Do you know if somebody somewhere on the Internet made Robin Philpot’s book available for download in a single, ebook reader compatible file format like TXT, EPUB, FB2, etc?
If not, I will do the cut-n-paste myself, and then convert it all to FB2, but I rather not do that if somebody has already done so.
Cheers and thanks!
@Saker. I looked around, but couldn’t find anything. Still, worth a read though.
This guy says “they’re only targeting males.” Big whoop. Males were targeted when the U.S. forcibly re-occupied Fallujah too. Targeting males is also pretty indiscrminiate.
And yes, intervention made things worse. Now we’ll have a partioned Libya with client state of the West in the eastern part of the country and Gaddafi in the west boxed in a la Saddam Hussein.