On genocide
It would seem that the United Nations is somewhat selective in deciding what constitutes a "genocide act". I hold no brief for the likes of General Mladic, whose siege of Sarajevo killed some 12,000 people, but thousands also died when Germany's highly inaccurate V1 and V2 rockets rained down on London. Those responsible, far from becoming war criminals, were placed in charge of America's space program and afforded assorted honors.
Nor did the forces of freedom sometimes act any better. The saturation bombing of Dresden, a quiet university town with little strategic significance, caused a huge firestorm, burning alive all in its path. The terrifying power of atom bombs was not demonstrated on isolated military targets, but dead center onto the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Whether men deliberately deliver mass destruction onto civilians from the anonymity of a high flying aircraft, or machine gun them in some dark Bosnian forest, the intention is the same. To demoralize the enemy by slaughtering those they love.
When some 200 civilians are killed in return crossfire in Lebanon it is found horrifying. When the Americans attack Baghdad with Cruise missiles and score a direct hit on an underground bunker crammed with women and children, it becomes "unavoidable civilian collateral damage". When Russia kills 30,000 in Chechnya, the world carefully looks the other way. When China brutally annexes Tibet: the same.
Who arms and supports the military death squad dictatorships of Central and South America? How can the horror of Kabul continue, except by virtue of the assistance of those who finance it and supply the weaponry? Can we look forward to seeing those who supported known psychopaths like Cambodia's Pol Pot being brought to trial for the millions killed with the armaments they supplied? I think not.
What do bombing and intimidation of other faiths in, say, Ireland and Bosnia have to do with Christianity? What do the continuing atrocities committed by fundamentalists in Pakistan and Algeria have to do with Islam? Absolutely nothing!
Unless we first clean up our own backyards, our protestations against others become just empty posturings.
JOHN ISHERWOOD
Jakarta