#a problem from hell

[quotes-for-the-soul]

Genocide can destroy a culture instantly, like fire can destroy a building in an hour.

Raphael Lemkin, as quoted in

A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power

[miss-chulove]

America’s nonresponse to the Turkish horrors established patterns that would be repeated. Time and again the U.S. government would be reluctant to cast aside its neutrality and formally denounce a fellow state for its atrocities. Time and again though U.S. officials would learn that huge numbers of civilians were being slaughtered, the impact of this knowledge would be blunted by their uncertainty about the facts and their rationalization that a firmer U.S. stand would make little difference. Time and again American assumptions and policies would be contested by Americans in the field closest to the slaughter, who would try to stir the imaginations of their political superiors. And time and again these advocates would fail to sway Washington. The United States would offer humanitarian aid to the survivors of “race murder” but would leave those committing it alone.

“A Problem From Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide, Samantha Power on the Armenian Genocide

[quotes-for-the-soul]

We have all been bystanders to genocide. The crucial question is why.

A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power

[toastyslayingbutter]

The Miseducation of Samantha Power

Samantha Power has staked her career on fighting for human rights. But her liberal interventionism undermines those very aims by propping up the world’s most powerful military.

“In the lead-up to the Iraq War, Power was disturbed to see A Problem From Hell trotted out to justify an invasion she did not support. She spends only a handful of pages on this episode in the memoir, mostly to declare it a “misinterpretation” partly due to “the coincidence of publishing the book in relative proximity to the start of the war.” Perhaps. But given her repeated endorsement of military intervention while in government, one wonders whether these Iraq War proponents were onto something.

Again and again, Power uses The Education of an Idealist to defend military action. In the case of Syria, she says she was so eager to order US strikes that she opposed asking Congress to authorize them, fearing permission would be refused. In the case of Libya, where intervention unquestionably deepened a humanitarian catastrophe, Power praises the United States for “[helping] orchestrate the fastest and broadest international response to an impending human rights crisis in history.” As for the barbarous results of this response, she essentially pleads ignorance: “Whatever our sincerity, we could hardly expect to have a crystal ball when it came to accurately predicting outcomes in places where the culture was not our own.” The similarity to non-apologies from Iraq War defenders is striking, to say the least.

[hereswhatiamreading-blog]

“A Problem From Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power (2002)

[alls-well-with-the-world]

And the United States did have countless opportunities to mitigate and prevent slaughter. But time and again, decent men and women chose to look away.

Samantha Power, A Problem for Hell

[moocowmoocow]

Ahead of their arrival, Dallaire says he got a phone call.  A U.S. officer was wondering precisely how many Rwandans had died. Dallaire was puzzled and asked why he wanted to know. 'We are doing our calculations back here,' the U.S. officer said, 'and one American casualty is worth about 85,000 Rwandan dead.'

Samantha Power, “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide, p. 381

[littlegreywolves]

samantha powers is the most unfair woman alive because she's a genius, the youngest person to ever be appointed american ambassador at the united nations, is a woman who made it to the top of a male-dominated field, has an equally famous scholar for a husband, her book is critically acclaimed as one of the best of its subject, and she's really pretty. where is the justice in this world.