'مشکلی از جهنم': آمریکا و عصر نسل‌کشی

About this book:In 1993, as a 23-year-old correspondent covering the wars in the Balkans, I was initially comforted by the roar of NATO planes flying overhead. President Clinton and other western leaders had sent the planes to monitor the Bosnian war, which had killed almost 200,000 civilians. But it soon became clear that NATO was unwilling to target those engaged in brutal "ethnic cleansing." American statesmen described Bosnia as "a problem from hell," and for three and a half years refused to invest the diplomatic and military capital needed to stop the murder of innocents. In Rwanda, around the same time, some 800,000 Tutsi and opposition Hutu were exterminated in the swiftest killing spree of the twentieth century. Again, the United States failed to intervene. This time U.S. policy-makers avoided labeling events "genocide" and spearheaded the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers stationed in Rwanda who might have stopped the massacres underway. Whatever America's commitment to Holocaust remembrance (embodied in the presence of the Holocaust Museum on the Mall in Washington, D.C.), the United States has never intervened to stop genocide. This book is an effort to understand why. While the history of America's response to genocide is not an uplifting one, "A Problem from Hell" tells the stories of countless Americans who took seriously the slogan of "never again" and tried to secure American intervention. Only by understanding the reasons for their small successes and colossal failures can we understand what we as a country, and we as citizens, could have done to stop the most savage crimes of the last century.-Samantha Power Amazon.com Review During the three years (1993-1996) Samantha Power spent covering the grisly events in Bosnia and Srebrenica, she became increasingly frustrated with how little the United States was willing to do to counteract the genocide occurring there. After much research, she discovered a pattern: "The United States had never in its history intervened to stop genocide and had in fact rarely even made a point of condemning it as it occurred," she writes in this impressive book. Debunking the notion that U.S. leaders were unaware of the horrors as they were occurring against Armenians, Jews, Cambodians, Iraqi Kurds, Rwandan Tutsis, and Bosnians during the past century, Power discusses how much was known and when, and argues that much human suffering could have been alleviated through a greater effort by the U.S. She does not claim that the U.S. alone could have prevented such horrors, but does make a convincing case that even a modest effort would have had significant impact. Based on declassified information, private papers, and interviews with more than 300 American policymakers, Power makes it clear that a lack of political will was the most significant factor for this failure to intervene. Some courageous U.S. leaders did work to combat and call attention to ethnic cleansing as it occurred, but the vast majority of politicians and diplomats ignored the issue, as did the American public, leading Power to note that "no U.S. president has ever suffered politically for his indifference to its occurrence. It is thus no coincidence that genocide rages on." This powerful book is a call to make such indifference a thing of the past. --Shawn Carkonen From Publishers Weekly Power, a former journalist for U.S. News and World Report and the Economist and now the executive director of Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights, offers an uncompromising and disturbing examination of 20th-century acts of genocide and U.S responses to them. In clean, unadorned prose, Power revisits the Turkish genocide directed at Armenians in 1915-1916, the Holocaust, Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, Iraqi attacks on Kurdish populations, Rwanda, and Bosnian "ethnic cleansing," and in doing so, argues that U.S. intervention has been shamefully inadequate. The emotional force of Power's argument is carried by moving, sometimes almost unbearable stories of the victims and survivors of such brutality. Her analysis of U.S. politics what she casts as the State Department's unwritten rule that nonaction is better than action with a PR backlash; the Pentagon's unwillingness to see a moral imperative; an isolationist right; a suspicious left and a population unconcerned with distant nations aims to show how ingrained inertia is, even as she argues that the U.S. must reevaluate the principles it applies to foreign policy choices. In the face of firsthand accounts of genocide, invocations of geopolitical considerations and studied and repeated refusals to accept the reality of genocidal campaigns simply fail to convince, she insists. But Power also sees signs that the fight against genocide has made progress. Prominent among those who made a difference are Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew who invented the word genocide and who lobbied the U.N. to make genocide the subject of an international treaty, and Senator William Proxmire, who for 19 years spoke every day on the floor of the U.S. Senate to urge the U.S. to ratify the U.N. treaty inspired by Lemkin's work. This is a well-researched and powerful study that is both a history and a call to action. Photos. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. United States,History,International Relations,Social Science,20th Century,Violence in Society,Holocaust,International Security,Genocide,Political Science,General,Political Freedom & Security "A Problem from Hell" is a path-breaking interrogation of the last century of American history. Samantha Power poses a question that haunts our nation's past: Why do American leaders who vow "never again" repeatedly fail to marshal the will and the might to stop genocide? She provides the answer in the form of the suspenseful story of courageous individuals who risked their careers and lives in an effort to get the United States to act. Drawing upon exclusive interviews with Washington's top policymakers, access to thousands of pages of newly declassified documents, and her own reporting from the modern killing fields, Power shows how those who urged U.S. action were thwarted again and again by ignorance, indifference, and, above all, a failure of imagination. In 1915, when Turkey sent its Armenian population on death marches into the desert, U.S. ambassador Henry Morgenthau denounce what he called "race murder." Raphael Lemkin, a Polish attorney appalled by the Turkish atrocities, tried to get European statesmen to criminalize the destruction of ethnic and religious groups, but he was dismissed as alarmist. Six years later, Hitler invaded Poland and Lemkin lost forty-nine family members in the Holocaust. Landing as a refugee on America's shores, Lemkin resolved to devise a word that would convey the evil under way. In 1944, while working for the U.S. Was Department, Lemkin invented the term "genocide." But the U.S. response to genocide since the Holocaust has looked very similar to its response before and during it. Pol Pot's murder of two million Cambodians went unchallenged. The United State supplied aid to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein while he gassed his own people. Despite the largest wave of resignations from the U.S. government since Vietnam, Serb nationalists were left alone to herd Bosnian Muslims into concentration camps in Europe. And in 1994 Rwandan Hutu militants exterminated some 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu without even generating high-level protest from Washington. "A Problem from Hell" combines spellbinding history and seasoned political analysis to do more than merely tell the story of U.S. inaction. Power shows how decent Americans inside and outside government looked away from mass murder by convincing themselves that refugees were lying, that intervention would be futile, or that contemporary genocides did not measure up to the crime they said they would "never again" permit. By allowing readers to hear directly from American decision-makers and dissenters, as well as from the victims of genocide, Power reveals just what was known and what might have been done while millions perished." -- Jacket About this book:In 1993, as a 23-year-old correspondent covering the wars in the Balkans, I was initially comforted by the roar of NATO planes flying overhead. President Clinton & other western leaders had sent the planes to monitor the Bosnian war, which had killed almost 200,000 civilians. But it soon became clear that NATO was unwilling to target those engaged in brutal "ethnic cleansing." American statesmen described Bosnia as "a problem from hell," & for three & a half years refused to invest the diplomatic & military capital needed to stop the murder of innocents. In Rwanda, around the same time, some 800,000 Tutsi & opposition Hutu were exterminated in the swiftest killing spree of the twentieth century. Again, the United States failed to intervene. This time U.S. policy-makers avoided labeling events "genocide" & spearheaded the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers stationed in Rwanda who might have stopped the massacres underway. Whatever America's commitment to Holocaust remembrance (embodied in the presence of the Holocaust Museum on the Mall in Washington, D.C.), the United States has never intervened to stop genocide. This book is an effort to understand why. While the history of America's response to genocide is not an uplifting one, A Problem from Hell tells the stories of countless Americans who took seriously the slogan of "never again" & tried to secure American intervention. Only by understanding the reasons for their small successes & colossal failures can we understand what we as a country, & we as citizens, could have done to stop the most savage crimes of the last century. -Samantha Power A Problem From Hell Is A Path-breaking Interrogation Of The Last Century Of American History. Samantha Power Poses A Question That Haunts Our Nation's Past: Why Do American Leaders Who Vow Never Again Repeatedly Fail To Marshal The Will And The Might To Stop Genocide? She Provides The Answer In The Form Of The Suspenseful Story Of Courageous Individuals Who Risked Their Careers And Lives In An Effort To Get The United States To Act. Drawing Upon Exclusive Interviews With Washington's Top Policymakers, Access To Thousands Of Pages Of Newly Declassified Documents, And Her Own Reporting From The Modern Killing Fields, Power Shows How Those Who Urged U.s. Action Were Thwarted Again And Again By Ignorance, Indifference, And, Above All, A Failure Of Imagination.--jacket. Preface -- 1. Race Murder -- 2. A Crime Without A Name -- 3. The Crime With A Name -- 4. Lemkin's Law -- 5. A Most Lethal Pair Of Foes -- 6. Cambodia : Helpless Giant -- 7. Speaking Loudly And Looking For A Stick -- 8. Iraq : Human Rights And Chemical Weapons Use Aside -- 9. Bosnia : No More Than Witnesses At A Funeral -- 10. Rwanda : Mostly In A Listening Mode -- 11. Srebrenica : Getting Creamed -- 12. Kosovo : A Dog And A Fight -- 13. Lemkin's Courtroom Legacy -- 14. Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Acknowledgments -- Index -- About The Author. Samantha Power. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [575]-587) And Index. From former UN Ambassador and author of the New York Times bestseller The Education of an Idealist Samantha Power, the Pulitzer Prize-winning book on America's repeated failure to stop genocides around the world In her prizewinning examination of the last century of American history, Samantha Power asks the haunting question: Why do American leaders who vow'never again'repeatedly fail to stop genocide? Power, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and the former US Ambassador to the United Nations, draws upon exclusive interviews with Washington's top policymakers, thousands of declassified documents, and her own reporting from modern killing fields to provide the answer.'A Problem from Hell'shows how decent Americans inside and outside government refused to get involved despite chilling warnings, and tells the stories of the courageous Americans who risked their careers and lives in an effort to get the United States to act. A modern classic and'an angry, brilliant, fiercely useful, absolutely essential book'(New Republic),'A Problem from Hell'has forever reshaped debates about American foreign policy.Winner of the Pulitzer Prize Winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Winner of the Raphael Lemkin Award ""A Problem from Hell" is a path-breaking interrogation of the last century of American history. Samantha Power poses a question that haunts our nation's past: Why do American leaders who vow "never again" repeatedly fail to marhsal the will and the might to stop genocide? She provides the answer in the form of the suspenseful story of courageous individuals who risked their careers and lives in an effort to get the United States to act. Drawing upon exclusive interviews with Washington's top policymakers, access to thousands of pages of newly declassified documents, and her own reporting from the modern killing fields, Power shows how those who urged U.S. action were thwarted again and again by ignorance, indifference, and, above all, a failure of imagination."--BOOK JACKET. Discusses America's political stance during the holocausts of the past fifty years, presenting moral arguments for why the United States should change its non-engagement policies to become involved in conflicts involving genocide. 30,000 first printing. On March 14, 1921, on a damp day in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, a twenty-four-year-old Armenian crept up behind a man in a heavy gray overcoat swinging his cane.