It’s a testament to President Obama’s own estimation of himself that he released Sunday night a statement on the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda lecturing about “the world’s failure to respond more quickly” and that “we always have a choice . . . we must never be indifferent.”
Because, this couldn’t be happening again, could it? Not under Obama. Obama is a force only for good.
More than 800,000 Rwandans died during the massacres that occurred there in 1994. Bill Clinton, who was president the time, actually traveled to Rwanda to apologize for not doing more. As if you could get your hands clean by “apologizing” for such a thing. But at least he wrestled with his conscience, which for Clinton is saying a lot.
Such soul searching seems beyond Obama.
During Obama’s presidency, some 150,000 people have died in Syria. About a third are estimated to be civilians.
At what point are there enough deaths to qualify as a “genocide”? What’s the difference? Obama has stood by and done nothing useful while the greatest horror of our new century unfolds.
But Obama nevertheless felt entitled to say this:
At this moment of reflection, we also remember that the Rwandan genocide was neither an accident nor unavoidable. It was a deliberate and systematic effort by human beings to destroy other human beings. The horrific events of those 100 days—when friend turned against friend, and neighbor against neighbor—compel us to resist our worst instincts, just as the courage of those who risked their lives to save others reminds us of our obligations to our fellow man.
The genocide we remember today—and the world’s failure to respond more quickly—reminds us that we always have a choice. In the face of hatred, we must remember the humanity we share. In the face of cruelty, we must choose compassion. In the face of intolerance and suffering, we must never be indifferent. Embracing this spirit, as nations and as individuals, is how we can honor all those who were lost two decades ago and build a future worthy of their lives.
There was a time, earlier in the Syrian conflict, when decisive action by this president could have toppled Bashar Assad and installed what would have hopefully been a more moderate regime. It couldn’t, at that time at least, have gotten much worse than the Iran-allied, terrorist-sponsoring Syrian ruler.
But Obama failed to act. He failed even to block, as he promised, Assad from using chemical weapons. And now the place is so infiltrated by al Qaeda and other Islamist extremists that there is no one to assist, and little for America to do.
Ultimately, the people who are committing the killings are responsible, not Obama. But it’s very possible he could have done more to prevent it. And so he is responsible for failing to act to prevent genocide, mass killing, or whatever you want to call it. It’s a permanent stain on his record.
Were Bush and Cheney in charge, I guarantee it, the charges of callous indifference would be lodged on a daily basis. Probably by Obama.
Adding to the nerve of Obama’s statement, you may have noticed, was his assertion that what happened in Rwanda should compel us to “resist our worst instincts.”
Whose worst instincts? Does he think Americans are like Rwandans, and would suddenly butcher 800,000 of our neighbors?
Please, Mr. President, worry about your own instincts. Instincts that are marked by indecision, indecisiveness, weakness, and unreliability. The very instincts in a leader that get people killed.