Un's Avoided Action example essay topic

"The triumph of evil occurs when good men do nothing". This quote was said by the modern day political philosopher, Edmund Burke. This quote means that it is when good people don't take action that bad things are allowed to happen. This relates to the recent genocide in Rwanda, when the Hutus massacred the Tutsis over a period of 100 days in the summer of 1994. Three major ways in which good men did nothing is the UN's avoided action, the soldiers who abandoned the Tutsis, and the United States' refusal to use the word "genocide", and took no action to prevent it. The UN did a large deal of procrastinating during the ordeal in Rwanda.

At first, they wouldn't even address that there was a problem, since no one stepped forward to say that there was one. They simply ignored it when the Rwanda ambassador told them that it was just a "civil war". When the UN finally did admit to the fact that there was a problem, they made several promises of action. These promises were hollow. Few actions were actually made to defuse the problem. Now the UN had already broken its most sincere promise in only 50 years, to never allow the extermination of a single group of people.

A promise made immediately following the end of the holocaust. All the UN really did was to send troops over there but that did little, the number of troop at one point was only a couple hundred, not nearly enough to stop the Hutu army. They also asked the US military to send in several APC, (Armored Personnel Carriers) only a few of which were sent into Rwanda. The rest, when they were finally finished after a long process, were sent to Uganda, the neighboring country. The soldiers sent in by the UN also displayed non-action during the genocide. At first, they managed to hold off the Hutus, even though they were outnumbered.

It seemed as though the fact that the soldiers were there managed to drive them off. If they had kept the troops there longer, and brought transports to take the Tutsis to a safe haven, and many lives could have been saved. Unfortunately, that is not what was ordered. Instead, they were ordered to go home. They were forced to leave behind those they were supposed to protect.

We can't fully blame the troops for this, since they were only following orders, and we can't expect them to try anything that would result in a Court Marshall. The militaries from other nations acted in their own interests. They sent in troops to rescue those from their country, not the Tutsis. It is those who gave the orders to their troops who must now have the many deaths of the Tutsis hanging over their heads. The United States, our own country, acted in a completely inappropriate manner.

We avoided calling the situation a 'genocide', and avoided answering why we did not intervene. Our government, who had recently dedicated a museum to Holocaust victims, was too concerned with personal advancements that the lives lost overseas. They were too worried about whether or not intervention would hurt or help them in getting votes. When we finally decided to step in and send in military force, we waited. We had to wait for the Pentagon to approve the release of the APCs, which meant putting it off until we decided what color to paint them, and what to stencil on them, etc. Then, when the ordeal was over, President Clinton decided it might be a good idea to go over to Rwanda and apologize.

Probably he felt it would improve his chances of reelection. When he got there, he made a speech, then got back on the plane, but he never left the airport. Why was practically no action taken to save the lives of 800, 00 people? Mostly because of selfishness and cowardice on the behalf of all the countries in the UN. Everyone was afraid that if they took any action, it would be considered controversial.

They felt that it was basically a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. Neither the UN, military, or US stuck their necks out to help a country in need of guidance, something they could have all given.