That Moment You Realize Your Country Participates in Genocide

August 21, 2016

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After the Second World War people gathered at Auschwitz and passionately declared “Never again!”

Unfortunately, we the people meant nothing of the sort; it was merely a token gesture - empty emotional rhetoric. Much like Obama, Trudeau, and Cameron’s statements on keeping a watchful eye on Saudi Arabia, it was a photo-op statement devoid of anything substantial. Canada is dealing $15 billion worth of military equipment to the Saudis (that’s nearly what we spend on our own military). The UK is dealing over £5 billion - at least their country’s leaders are starting to question it. The Americans are dealing a staggering $100 billion.

Moreover, it’s undeniable that the Saudis are committing genocide. They have carried out airstrikes against the infrastructure that allows for humanitarian aid in the northern parts of Yemen. They’ve targeted gas stations and bridges so people can’t leave. They have targeted civilians. What’s more to the point, the Saudis are targeting areas populated by the Zaydis - a denomination of Shia Islam. Humanitarian aid is permitted for Sunni residents in the southern parts Yemen, but they’re specifically eradicating the population in areas inhabited by Shia Muslims. It’s unquestionably genocide against the Zaydis. It’s complete immorality on the West’s part that we’re giving them more weapons. It’s a lack of a national soul.

The United Nations has defined genocide in article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide:

“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

The Saudis are clearly guilty of three of these. This scenario fits the legal definition of genocide. It’s grossly unethical. Clearly no moral human being could support these actions. Nevertheless, our leaders are supporting these actions and the logical deduction is that they aren’t moral people.

The United States is having a fierce debate over gun control in the wake of the massacre in Orlando. A man murdered people for them being homosexual. Imagine the horror in the case of the police being on the same side as shooter - and if your imagination is failing you, visit Saudi Arabia where the officials share the same ideology of the shooter. We debate gun control, but our leaders are giving far more impressive arms to people that are criminally insane.

All of this is done because Saudi Arabia is our ally. Even so, that would never excuse the bloodshed that we currently support. That aside, Saudi Arabia remains a significant source of support for Salafi jihadism. Wahhabism is the ideology that fuels the terrorists threatening our society and it’s a product of Saudi Arabia. Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and LeT, are all financed through Saudi Arabia. With friends like this, one wonders about the purpose of an enemy.

The question we have before us is whether or not we’ll take part in abetting genocide. If we vote for politicians that support this, then abetting genocide is precisely what we, as individuals, are doing. Canada made the wrong choice. We allowed the media to distract us. We adopted rhetoric and ignored genocide. The silence during the last election was deafening in that it spoke so loudly to our national failure. Now we have to live with this on our national conscience; it’s not worth it. I urge my friends south of the border to raise this issue in the election season. A better world is worth fighting for.

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Brandon Kirby

Brandon Kirby has a philosophy degree from the University of New Brunswick and is a current MBA candidate finishing his thesis. He is an AML officer specializing in hedge funds in the Cayman Islands, owns a real estate company in Canada, and has been in the financial industry since 2004. He is the director of Being Libertarian - Canada and the president of the Libertarian Party of Canada.