Neverdock points out a Panorama article for BBConline reckoning up the world's failure over Rwanda. As usual the Beeb blames the US. Criticism of the UN is just matter-of-fact, or is deflected onto the actions of participating governments, but criticism of the US goes right into the culture of its government. No mention though is made of Clinton or the Democrats -crucial historical background that's subsumed within a general anti-American theme. Another historical pill I found hard to swallow was a reference to 'Allied planes flying over the Nazi death camps' which implied UK/US complicity in the holocaust. Like, could you send me the treatise for that one please?



Fundamental Issue. What's always conveniently forgotten is that the US are the biggest financial contributor to the UN by far. Without them and their leadership of Nato, there would be no blue helmets at all. This should surely temper some of the criticism, but it almost never does.


Who's Responsible? According to the article 'This was not tribal frenzy, not anarchy, but the work of an organised, hierarchical and obedient society'. Yeah, well, if it was an organised society I'd say that their own society was responsible, rather than the 'West'. No mention is made of the depravity of the killers, or the responsiblity of their leaders. The article is entitled 'When Good Men Do Nothing'. Who said anything about the men who comprise the UN being 'good' (apart from the BBC)? Or any country having no self-interest? And in any case the title is a distortion of the dictum that all it requires for evil men to triumph is for good men to do nothing. It leaves out the vital part of the Rwandan genocide: 'evil men triumphed'- and they are the villains.


What The Beeb are Playing At. They don't lie down for long. They lost over Iraq; they lost over the Hutton report. Now they're trying to enforce a long guilt trip on the US, to get them to prioritise the UN and work for a transnational world order under the UN which would give humanistic agencies like the Beeb pride of place.[I should add here: I refer to the underlying issues currently part of the BBC's reporting agenda. See here and here for mild examples from today's BBC news] To confuse Iraq and Rwanda is quite wrong, and indeed it's important to state explicitly in the circumstances that no comparison could reasonably be drawn, and unfortunately the BBC is obliquely pursuing the old grievance that the war on Iraq was justifed by a false premise: that of Iraqi WMD. The argument that the 'West's' moral failure over Rwanda invalidates a moral justification for the war in Iraq is one familiar from Chomsky that has very much done the rounds. However, concern over WMD was not a false premise and it wasn't the only justification for war with Iraq that will stand up- providing we don't get caught up in the waves of self-hate generate by BBC-type approaches.