In 1994 the country of Rwanda was plagued by a genocide that claimed the lives and dignities of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

Thousands were killed in the first day of this horrible “ethnic cleansing”, and it’s estimated that 800,000 were slaughtered during the three-month period of this horrific genocide.

The most disturbing part of this whole tragedy is the way in which innocent people were tortured, killed and raped. People were burnt alive, killed in churches and even forced to kill their own friends. These people were helpless citizens and were persecuted for their political beliefs.

According to a human rights report that was released in March 1999, the United States, Belgium, France and the rest of the United Nations all had previous warnings about plans for the 1994 genocide, and could have prevented it. This is uncalled for and it’s unbelievable that no one came to their aid.

These were innocent people who were being brutally murdered and no one stepped up and defended this people in need.

Everyone in the world just looked the other way and went back to their comfortable lives that aren’t plagued with that kind of terrible pain and suffering.

The United Nations continuously refused troop requests and therefore, in my opinion, they are cowards. If the powerful and wealthy can’t help the poor and powerless this is an extremely sad world.

Alison Des Forges, a scholar on Rwanda, stated that “the Americans were interested in saving money, the Belgians were interested in saving face, and the French were interested in saving their ally, the genocidal government.”

It’s easy to see the wealthy nations of the world are more interested in saving money and reputation, rather than helping the exploited and helpless.

Imagine if that was your friends or family being raped, tortured and killed. Wouldn’t you want someone to come to your aide?

I’m not saying the United States should play world police, because it’s not necessary, but when countries are in desperate need the United States government needs to reach out to these suffering people with hospitality and compassion.

After the Rwandan genocide the United Nations released a “never again” promise which stated that such a tragedy will never happen again. But they lied. The country of Darfur, a small country smack in the middle of Africa, is following in Rwanda’s footsteps.

Despite the hollow promises made by the United Nations, Darfur has been virtually unaided. There is a genocide going on right now, right as your reading this article, and no one cares. Sad but true.

The United States currently has numerous troops stationed in Iraq and we have had a long and bloody crisis over there, only to find the war may have been in vain.

No weapons of mass destruction and no threat to the United States of America.

The United States also got themselves into a bogus war on terror which president Bush fumbled horribly.

If our government is going to try to help the helpless, do it in the right places. The genocide in Darfur has already claimed the life’s of 200,000 people. Could you imagine what a couple thousand troops could have done?

It may have saved thousands of lives. Children would still be alive and women would not be scarred for life from being brutally raped.

The wealthy have dehumanized the native people of Darfur. They are viewed as so poor and powerless that their lives are thought to be no more important than those of animals. Maybe even less important.

I know the citizens of Iraq were oppressed, but not even close to the magnitude of the genocide in Darfur. So why are we helping Iraq and not Darfur as well? It may be because the location and poverty of these people.

Darfur is in the poorest part of the world. Are we refusing to help these people because we know it will be no benefit to us? Is it because it would be no benefit for us to imperialize them? Is it because it would be no benefit for our government to globalize them and force our culture on them?

Maybe the United States government has no interest in them because they don’t need these people to achieve any of their goals.

I’m not trying to be rebellious or offensive; I just like to question our government’s concern for the helpless. The people of Darfur are human beings. We are no better than them.

We need to reach out and better their lives and ease their suffering.

Send comments to Scott Recker at [email protected].