In the Philippines, at least one-million civilians perished from outright slaughter, disease, and famine between 1899 and 1908. A largely forgotten genocide of at least three-million Roman Catholics and over a half a million Jews took place in the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania by Orthodox, Protestants and Muslims. One-third of its population was slaughtered between 1648 and 1662.
Nearly two-million Armenians were killed during the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. Dur-ing the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, in 267-days 1 to 3 million ethnic Bengalis were killed by the Pakistan Army and 200,000 women were raped. Between 1975 and1979, 1.7-million Cambodians were killed by the Khmer Rouge.
After Kashmiri uprising began in late 1989 over 100,000 Kashmiri Muslim and Hindu civilians have been killed and over 500,000 people have been driven away from their homes. Other atrocities including rape, torture and massacre are attributed to the Indian Army personnel in the region.
The Sri Lanka authorities have been committing systematic genocide against the Tamil people since 1958. Murder, rape, arson, maiming and pillage are all acts perpetrated upon the Tamils.
In 1992-1995 there was an organized killing of thousands of Bosnians and displacing of a million more. A hundred days in 1994 took almost a million lives in Rwanda. Hutus with machetes in hand slaughtered their Tutsis neighbors in their effort to annihilate all Tutsis from Rwanda. The Belgian police left, the U.N. ran for cover and the blood ran down the streets and no country came to their protection.
In 2002, Sudan was accused of the genocide of more than two-million lives and the displacement of more than four-million people since the Sudanese War started in 1983. In 2004 it became widely known that there was an organized campaign by Janjaweed militias (nomadic Arab shepherds with the support of Sudanese government and troops) to get rid of 80 black African groups from the Darfur region of western Sudan. These peoples include the Fur, Zaghawa and Massalit.
Knowing that the atrocities are taking place the Western world is still unwilling to take action. The death toll rises every day. The inhumanity of man upon man, woman and child is so appalling, so horrible that the words are inexplicably inadequate.
The Western world is not innocent. In fact, there are more instances of intrusion, escalation and insertion than this article can include. But, there is one issue that must be stated and that is Depleted Uranium: The dream child of Dick Cheney. In 1991 he was responsible for the wholesale use of radioactive munitions back in the Bush I administration. It is the genocide that keeps on giving, disabling and killing all that come into contact with it and leaving its devastating effects on generations contaminating the air, water and earth and every aspect of living free of contaminates. It is a price our enlisted men and women know all too well as they are sick and dying of a myriad of immobilizing diseases.
If, as 1776 author, David C. McCullough wrote, "History is who we are and why we are the way we are" is true, we're in trouble. Our history does not speak well for us. George Bernard Shaw said, "We learn from history that we learn nothing from history". How sad and how true is that statement?
If this partial list - and yes, folks, this horrific accounting is only a partial list of carnage isn't enough to cause one to rethink our place in this world and what we owe to one another then we are doomed to keep repeating our shocking history. Is this acceptable? Is this what we want for us, for our children, for our history?
Why is it that as a human race we think killing, raping, mayhem, mutilation and butchery is an acceptable means for change? For years we've watched as religious disagreements waged on as wars destroying entire nations. Some of our ancestors have witnessed first hand the inhumanity of man and gasped at the horror. After Hitler's expansive Holocaust the world swore never to allow it again, and yet, here we are in the twenty-first century and everywhere in this world someone is being killed, beaten, imprisoned, raped, and pillaged because someone else thought them inferior.
On a smaller scale murder, rape and arson are crimes of every community. Local police de-partments deploy officers to school yards with Tasers in hand to disrupt volatile youngsters. Parents' abuse their children in unspeakable ways and spouses beat one another in numbers too many to count. Are these symptoms of our greater ill? What is our remedy? Are we destined to destroy ourselves with hatred?
We can no longer ignore the pain of others whether in our community or our country or the world with which we all live. Silence is not an option.
As Edmund Burke so eloquently stated, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
Nearly two-million Armenians were killed during the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. Dur-ing the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, in 267-days 1 to 3 million ethnic Bengalis were killed by the Pakistan Army and 200,000 women were raped. Between 1975 and1979, 1.7-million Cambodians were killed by the Khmer Rouge.
After Kashmiri uprising began in late 1989 over 100,000 Kashmiri Muslim and Hindu civilians have been killed and over 500,000 people have been driven away from their homes. Other atrocities including rape, torture and massacre are attributed to the Indian Army personnel in the region.
The Sri Lanka authorities have been committing systematic genocide against the Tamil people since 1958. Murder, rape, arson, maiming and pillage are all acts perpetrated upon the Tamils.
In 2002, Sudan was accused of the genocide of more than two-million lives and the displacement of more than four-million people since the Sudanese War started in 1983. In 2004 it became widely known that there was an organized campaign by Janjaweed militias (nomadic Arab shepherds with the support of Sudanese government and troops) to get rid of 80 black African groups from the Darfur region of western Sudan. These peoples include the Fur, Zaghawa and Massalit.
Knowing that the atrocities are taking place the Western world is still unwilling to take action. The death toll rises every day. The inhumanity of man upon man, woman and child is so appalling, so horrible that the words are inexplicably inadequate.
The Western world is not innocent. In fact, there are more instances of intrusion, escalation and insertion than this article can include. But, there is one issue that must be stated and that is Depleted Uranium: The dream child of Dick Cheney. In 1991 he was responsible for the wholesale use of radioactive munitions back in the Bush I administration. It is the genocide that keeps on giving, disabling and killing all that come into contact with it and leaving its devastating effects on generations contaminating the air, water and earth and every aspect of living free of contaminates. It is a price our enlisted men and women know all too well as they are sick and dying of a myriad of immobilizing diseases.
If, as 1776 author, David C. McCullough wrote, "History is who we are and why we are the way we are" is true, we're in trouble. Our history does not speak well for us. George Bernard Shaw said, "We learn from history that we learn nothing from history". How sad and how true is that statement?
If this partial list - and yes, folks, this horrific accounting is only a partial list of carnage isn't enough to cause one to rethink our place in this world and what we owe to one another then we are doomed to keep repeating our shocking history. Is this acceptable? Is this what we want for us, for our children, for our history?
Why is it that as a human race we think killing, raping, mayhem, mutilation and butchery is an acceptable means for change? For years we've watched as religious disagreements waged on as wars destroying entire nations. Some of our ancestors have witnessed first hand the inhumanity of man and gasped at the horror. After Hitler's expansive Holocaust the world swore never to allow it again, and yet, here we are in the twenty-first century and everywhere in this world someone is being killed, beaten, imprisoned, raped, and pillaged because someone else thought them inferior.
On a smaller scale murder, rape and arson are crimes of every community. Local police de-partments deploy officers to school yards with Tasers in hand to disrupt volatile youngsters. Parents' abuse their children in unspeakable ways and spouses beat one another in numbers too many to count. Are these symptoms of our greater ill? What is our remedy? Are we destined to destroy ourselves with hatred?
We can no longer ignore the pain of others whether in our community or our country or the world with which we all live. Silence is not an option.
As Edmund Burke so eloquently stated, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
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