Reply #212: this is absurd

[Two Americas]

For one thing, whether or not Bush is competent is completely irrelevant, and I think misleading and false. The administration had definite plans and executed them masterfully. There is no evidence that they goofed. We may not like the things they have been successful at - advancing the interests of their wealthy and powerful clients - but they have succeeded. Perhaps in spite of being goofy and incompetent. The rulers of Germany in the 30's did a lot of damage, and were not the brightest bulbs or most stable people.

Then this notion that because administration officials said their goals were something other than genocide means anything is also foolish. Had they said "we are sending the military to Iraq to murder people that get in our way and to destroy their culture and communities" they would have risked much more opposition. The relative plausibility of the excuses and rationales for genocide does niot change anything.

To answer your question - yes, I do absolutely think that "it was their intent to murder Iraqi's because of who they are." That is what they have done, that is what all of their policies, tactics and strategies were dead certain to lead to, that is how they are measuring success, and they successfully whipped the people here up into an anti-Arab murderous frenzy - because of "who they are." The average supporter of the war on the street thinks that we are killing people because of "who they are" and has gotten that message from the administration very clearly. The news media outlets repeat the government updates - such and such number of people killed - as a measure of the "progress" of the occupation.

If this is not targeting and murdering people for "who they are," I don't know what would be. It may not be on the scale of past genocides, it may not be as efficiently accomplished, but that is not relevant either.

Why would we want to not pick or water down or weaken the definition of genocide in any case, and look for excuses for the perpetrators?

Targeting and threatening a people's very existence in a variety of ways because of who and where they are is genocidal.

This is the danger of seeing the administration as incompetent idiots and morons - it lets them off the hook for their crimes.