Lessons from Rwanda

A Catholic nun is sentenced to 30 years in prison for her role in the Rwanda genocide of 1994. More than 750,000 people may be held trial at a UN tribunal. This is an important step for healing in Rwanda.

There are lessons from Rwanda, and they matter to the world today. The United States cannot be isolationist. We cannot be uninterested in human rights issues in other countries. We essentially were during the Rwandan genocide, and 500,000 corpses later, we might be said to have a bit of blood on our hands. The phrase "world police" is batted around by people who will not entertain the alternative of what not assuming something like that position leads to. And incidentally, those who missed the boat (I am ashamed to say I was one of them) in supporting the liberation struggle in Iraq - those international solidarity liberals who should have been a consistent, checking part of the dialogue to prevent the disaster our involvement has led to - are now calling for what must be assumed to be unilateral intervention in Darfur. I could wish the intervention in Iraq had been conducted absent WMD fear tactics, which merit President Bush being called up in front of a special Congressional subcommittee.

The sad truth is that most of the American people wouldn't have supported intervention in Iraq if it had been simply in the name of human rights. Opposition to a morally grounded intervention in Iraq would not, in those circumstances, have been justified opposition to shady, suspicious characters in our government. It could not from any angle have seemed a liberal position. One day those who speak cynically and dogmatically against addressing the human rights grievances of the Iraqi people will wake up and realize how conservative they really are. The anti-war stance is not always the most liberal. There are some who act as if the lessons from Rwanda can inform our position on any country except Iraq, and it's a shame.