1994 genocide of Rwandans: No media analysis; no outrage; Clinton said not a word

Skulls, bodies, skeletons of Rwanda victims. The skulls and skeletons are exhibited at the Murambi Technical School, where many victims were killed by the Hutu. The technical school is now a museum.

Every day I watch them, read their biased columns and news stories, I try not to get irritated at the media and talking heads. I try not to scream at my TV or the online newspapers. I just want to know what they mean when say and write that President Obama is "slow to act." 

When they say and write that he does not understand the issues like they do, I want to know what they mean. They say he’s weak and indecisive, and it's causing him to "loose his base."

It’s important to recognize that President Obama has never jumped headfirst into a situation just because media and pundits demand that he jump to their music. They want him to part with information for them to write about and analyze it to death on national TV.

The media complex have determined that President Obama and his administration are doing nothing about Libya. Duh! The president could not pull together

a coalition of countries in one hour, and then hold a press conference to inform them and dictator Mammar Gaddafi of his intended rules of engagement. 

When the President got a coalition together–the U.S., France and Britian- to initiate a No Fly Zone in Libya, with an intent to dismantle Gaddafi’s military, the media and pundits wasted no time stating their "expert" opinions. Some of them, and a number of pandering politicians called the president a “follower” because America did not drop the first bomb. "The President is leading from behind"; "He didn't act fast enough."

 During the Rwanda massacre that started April 7, 1994, and lasting until mid-July, taking the lives of an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 Rwandans, the media did not accuse President Bill Clinton of "not acting fast enough."

To satisfy their Reality Show thirst for instant gratification, the media expects President Obama to hold press conferences everyday, and hand out packets of classified information. The same  incurious media and  pundits sat idly by and let the George Bush administration tell them that Saddam Hussein was developing WMDs. Bush said Hussein was responsible for the 9/11 bombings. The media did not protest the lie. They drank every word that Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rove, Rumsfeld and Powell told them.

Had the media hunkered down, committed itself to real investigative reporting, they would have learned that the  George Bush administration lied. Instead, the media were too busy bragging about the swaggering cowboy in the White House. He was their hero. Given they were so lackadaisical during Bush's eight years in office, the media are attempting to make President Obama pay for their laziness and idolizing of Bush.

Politicians from both sides on the fence have said they did not have enough “information”  about the Libyan situation. Therefore, they cannot say with certainty what they would do. They say they do not understand President Obama's goal or plan of action. Dennis Kucinich, a 2007 presidential loser, is calling for impeaching the President.

 Hundreds of slaughtered Rwandans lay on a roadside, piled on top of each other. Even more bloated  bodies of men, women and children floated in rivers like canoes.

 In Rwanda, 1994, it took 100 days for a mass genocide to happen. Hutu hoodlums hunted and killed Rwandans in the small East African nation. Bill Clinton and the United Nations did nothing. Maybe that's because the  clandestine 1993 “humanitarian” attack on Somalia to remove from power, Gen. Mohamad Farrah Ardid, ended in failure. Eighteen American soldiers were killed; 77 wounded. Clinton had to square himself with angry White voters and politicians at home, who were pissed to the gill. He made a choice to back off of the Rwanda massacre.

"From the very start the United States resisted intervention in Rwanda because of national interests, higher priorities and domestic and bureaucratic politics. Moreover, during the three months of killing, the U.S. blocked several opportunities, short of intervention, that could have diminished the slaughter." Frontline,  Ghost of Rwanda.

Michael Sheehan, peacekeeping adviser to Madeleine Albright, said on Frontline, "And I can tell you, having remembered very clearly, there was no one within the United States political spectrum in that period that was calling for an American-led intervention -- no one in the Congress, no one in the executive branch, no one in the military, no one in the press.

Skulls of massacred Rwandans displayed in museum

"There was almost a silence on that issue at the time. It was only later, mid-May and later, as the horrors came into full view, that there were a rush of people, volunteering that [the] Americans should have guided an operation in there. But I can tell you, in late April and early May, in terms of the serious political leadership within the executive branch or in the Congress, there was no big advocates for taking U.S. forces that were basically steaming out of the port of Mogadishu at that same time and reinserting them into central Africa in a very, very unstable situation".

Albright said, "The tragedy in Rwanda was so quick, that I am not sure there was time for a major voice in it. Also, again, I think what's important is to see it within the context of the other things that were happening. Somalia, and watching Americans be dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, was a searing event. Trying to figure out how to deal with the results of that, the lessons learned, and then the lessons don't apply exactly to another situation -- I think it was a very troubling time, in terms of decision making generally. It's that the information wasn't there, and the wherewithal wasn't there to do it".

 As I recall, the media refused to classify the Rwanda massacre an act of genocide. The death total was not large enough to classify as genocide, it was concluded. Media reporting was extremely sparse. It was a civil war between African rivals. Why waste time reporting on it? 

Clinton apologized in 1998 for turning his head. That was too late for the 500,000 to 1,000,000,000 Rwandans who lost their lives for no reason other than politics and power.

Clinton did not want to appear too concerned about Rwanda, especially after the Somalia incident in which the lifeless bodies of three dead Americans were dragged through the streets Mogadishu to loud cheers. So now President Obama must pay for the ineffectiveness of prior presidents. The media and pundits are not missing a beat this time.