The Wars We Ignore: Us vs. Genocide

The Wars We Don't Fight: The United States Vs. Genocide.

A research paper aimed at informing the audience of the need for the United states to take more action to prevent and punish genocide.

Joseph G Kunkel

Eng 111

10/23/09

The Wars We Don't Fight: The United States Vs. Genocide

Pulitzer prize winner Nicholas D. Kristof once said “You will be judged in years to come by how you responded to genocide on your watch.” Genocide is a crime that has plagued humanity for centuries, but it was only after the 1940's and the events of the Holocaust that many nations decided to come together and take measures to prevent the crime of Genocide. Article Two of The United Nations Convention Against Genocide (UNCAG), defines genocide as,

“Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

The UNCAG was drafted signed and ratified by the United States of America, and fellow members of the United Nations, and it came with a promise to punish any party committing the crime of Genocide. When the UNCAG was formed it was believed that as long as the UN function genocide would not go unpunished, unfortunately that was not the case. Members of the UN, including the united states, have been slow to even acknowledge much-less punish many Genocides that have taken place since the signing of the UNCAG. The Genocide in Rowanda was allowed to transpire unchallenged for years before the United States and the United Nations finally saw fit to intervene. Genocide as defined by the UNCAG is currently being committed in Burma, Darfur, and...