A Problem from Hell
""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.
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- I chose not to up- or downvote your reply. I disagree that the comment above adds nothing to the conversation. It adds historical context that otherwise may not be apparent to the current generation who must grow up and deal with the problems that ignoring the past has created and will continue to create.
I'm a bit older than a lot of y'all and I grew up reading stories on the founding of Israel, the true stories of the holocaust written by those who witnessed and experienced the horrors first-hand, etc. All of these books that I read were written from the Israeli perspective for an American or western audience in order to inform people who had no concept of the depths of depravity that a modern industrialized society could allow themselves to be dragged into.
The information and the stories related steered my own opinions and feelings towards supporting Israel in the wars and other significant events that have happened during my own lifetime - 1967 Six Day War, 1973 Yom Kippur War, 1978 Camp David Accords, 1982 Israeli intervention in Lebanon, 1983 US Marine Barracks bombing and the fallout from that, and all the bullshit conflicts since.
I was able to follow these things as a kid and later a teen into adulthood because my parents maintained a book club subscription that was regularly improved by addition of new, current books on many subjects. As kids we were encouraged to select books for the collection and to read them when they were delivered.
Knowledge is power. By ignoring the historical context you are effectively censoring events that did happen and whose repercussions still resonate in the region.
You should not cherry-pick your own version of history. That is effectively propaganda, a tool used by authoritarians to indoctrinate. The original books that I read were written from the Israeli perspective in order to gain international influence. There were no novels or historical biographies of Arab leaders or of the region that were written in the context of providing historical background information that would help someone in the west understand the situation from the Arab perspective. To get that you needed to read newspapers and magazines, which I also did. Over time I began to understand just how complex everything is in the region and how constant support, especially from the United States, paid for the Israeli side of every conflict and situation.
For anyone to support Israel's current leadership in what can only be described as a genocide on the same level employed against Jews by the Nazis or the US Cavalry against Native American tribes is wrong.
Perhaps you should read a book about genocide and the origin of the term. I recommend the excellent book:
Samantha Power: A Problem from Hell - America and the Age of Genocide[0]
Sadat and Begin showed a path forward if other players had the courage to follow. Too bad that it took thousands of deaths on all sides and nearly 50 years and huge financial incentives and arms deals to bring others into agreement that living as neighbors in the same region requires some level of cooperation in order to guarantee mutual survival. Unfortunately the current players simply picked a common enemy and focused their efforts on destroying that enemy so that they could control the resources of the region.
I hope you agree that this comment has added something useful to the conversation.
[0]https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/368731._A_Problem_from_H...
- Samantha Power wrote an excellent book: "A Problem From Hell" - America and the Age of Genocide [0], [1]
She had seen war and genocide first-hand in Bosnia and that provided the impetus for her to study how America had responded to various genocides.
I will repeat the last paragraph of her Preface for some context.
>Before I began exploring America's relationship with genocide, I used to refer to U.S. policy towards Bosnia as a "failure." I have changed my mind. It is daunting to acknowledge, but this country's consistent policy of nonintervention in the face of genocide offers sad testimony not to a broken American political system but to one that is ruthlessly effective. The system, as it stands now, is working. No U.S. president has ever made genocide prevention a priority, and no U.S. president has ever suffered politically for his indifference to its occurrence. It is thus no coincidence that genocide rages on.
[0] https://samanthapower.com/books/a-problem-from-hell-america-...
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Problem-Hell-America-Age-Genocide/dp/...
- On this topic, I highly recommend Samantha Power's book "A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide" which details the United States inability to respond promptly to the many cases of genocide over the past century.
- >Every time we have been interventionists either overtly or covertly it has caused unintended consequences and often disastrous ones. When will we learn that it hurts more than helps?
That is patently false. The United States alone has a long history of successful humanitarian intervention, beginning with Tripoli and running through World Wars I and II. Even within our lifetimes, there was the NATO intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
I believe you may be looking at this through a post 9-11 lens, which is causing you to place too much emphasis on blowback. Obviously Operation AJAX, the alliance with Baathists, and funding of the mujahideen in Afghanistan had significant negative unintended consequences.
However, that is by no means an ironclad rule. For further information I'd suggest A Problem from Hell by Samantha Power and Freedom's Battle by Gary Bass.
- On my firefox, any title not fitting in two lines (which are a lot of them) are cut off.
It is also worse on the "Browse By Subject" selection above the "ranked catalog" on the main page. (eg https://book-prize-index.vercel.app/subjects/science ) which I mostly used.
The "ranked catalog" is much better in that regard, thanks for making me aware of it :)
Index / Subjects / Science gives me: An Immense World: How Animal Senses...
Ranked Catalog (Science filter) gives me: An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realm...
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It's not the end of the world, but for a few books it hides the theme a litte, eg
shows to me as"A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide"A Problem from Hell": America and... - IIRC from [0] US politicians long regarded the horror stories out of Cambodia as exaggerated tales at best, enemy propaganda at worst, since the Cambodian regime was opposed to the newly formed Vietnamese government.
They couldn't politically support the cause of their former enemy, so Cambodians suffered for longer, until Vietnam got bold enough to invade and liberate them (Edit: I don't know whether the aim was to liberate, the aim probably was to invade but it resulted in liberation).
But yeah, I don't remember any material support either. But the political support was deciding in keeping the madmen going in the country.
[0] "A Problem from Hell" by Samantha Power
