Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.
That is the original definition of the word “genocide” in the words of the man who formulated the term in 1943, Raphael Lemkin. Born in 1900 in Bezwodne, Poland, he began studying mass murders at the age of 12. He based his concept of genocide off of the Ottoman Turkish genocide of the Christians beginning in the 19th century and which culminated in the genocide of 1915 and the great Ukrainian starvation from 1930 to 1933 under Stalin, known as the Holodomor, as well as through his studies of many other genocides throughout history. Mr. Lemkin’s concept of genocide was instrumental in the post World War II prosecutions of former German Socialist war criminals during the Nuremberg Trials. He came to the US after the War and spent the rest of his life teaching and lecturing about genocide in American campuses and at events across the world.
Fast forward to 2016, it is painfully obvious that what ISIS did to the Christians of Syria and Iraq is a genocide. There used to be millions of Catholic and Orthodox Christians living in these areas, even in spite of the ongoing American war and presence in Iraq. However, thanks to ISIS, a people who had survived for two thousand years, including under many repressive Muslim regimes such as the Ottomans and the Mongols, were extinguished from their own lands. If this is not the complete destruction of an entire people and as such a genocide per Mr. Lemkin’s term, then I do not know what a genocide is.
Many Americans know that John Kerry cares only about his Democrat party politics and the money and power which comes with it, and he will say anything to keep it. That said, his response at a Appropriations Subcommittee on the Department of State and Foreign Assistance was beyond asinine. He knows that ISIS committed genocide, it’s just that he doesn’t want to acknowledge it. Via CNS News:
Secretary of State John Kerry told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Department of State and Foreign Assistance today that he is having an “additional evaluation” done to help him determine whether the systematic murder of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East—at the hands of the Islamic State and others—should be declared “genocide.”
“I will make a decision on it as soon as I have that additional evaluation and we will proceed forward from there,” Kerry said.
…
Kerry said he is now considering declaring the targeting of Middle East Christians and other religious minorities in the region a genocide.
But, Kerry said, he has asked for “further evalution” to be done before he makes a final decision.
“I share just a huge sense of revulsion over these acts, obviously,” Kerry said. “None of us have ever seen anything like it in our lifetimes. Although, obviously, if you go back to the Holocaust, the world has seen it.
“We are currently doing what I have to do, which is review very carefully the legal standards and precedents for whatever judgment is made,” he said.
“I can tell you we are doing that,” he said. “I have had some initial recommendations made to me. I have asked for some further evaluation. And I will make a decision on this. And I will make a decision on it as soon as I have that additional evaluation and we will proceed forward from there.”
But as we have pointed out here at Shoebat.com, the real reason that John Kerry doesn’t want to call the ISIS massacres a genocide is because it would upset America’s “special ally” in the region:
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