Finally the US SecState has announced that ISIS has been conducting genocide. 

What’s next?

Will we see the president announce a policy to stop this genocide?

Will we see the president resubmit a request for the authority to carry out said policy from congress?

Will congress (who just announced on their own that we have been witnessing a genocide) actually take up an AUMF debate and give the president the necessary authority to stop this now before the slaughter can spread?

I am not optimistic. I would like to think America learned its lesson from watching recent genocides in Africa and sitting on the sidelines instead of leading a coalition to stop them. 

I was lucky enough to take the Genocide Prevention course taught by the US Holocaust Museum while in my Command and General Staff College in 2011. It was an excellent program and I reccomend it to anyone interested in the topic. The last day of the course is etched in my mind permanently. We were privileged to meet a panel of people that had witnessed first hand the genocides in Africa and also to meet with an Auschwitz survivor. 

During the Q&A session I asked a simple question to the panel and the instructors. 

“The next time America witnesses a genocide will we act to stop it?”

The panelists all just lowered their heads and voices and said basically…unfortunately not. 

For America and the other free states to remain relevant as a force for good in this world please let them be wrong.