Quote Originally Posted by Dayuhan View Post
Carl mentioned that in the in the effort to conquer the American west, Americans once learned "everything there is to know about Small Wars". It is of course absolutely true that genocide is an effective way of resolving a small war. A US Congressman is said to have remarked, after observing the pacification efforts in Northern Luzon, that "they don't rebel any more because there's nobody left to rebel". Those tactics are effective, no doubt. That doesn't do us much good, because we don't do that any more. Our standards have changed, and our expectations of ourselves have changed. We have changed.
That is a BS argument. Genocide won the west and won the PI and we can't do that anymore so there is nothing much to be learned from those things. That's nonsense. The historical record is detailed and it doesn't show that.

In fact, I distrust any argument that uses the word 'genocide' anymore. It has evolved from what I consider its proper use to describe something like Rwanda or the Final Solution into a word empty of actual meaning whose use is to shock the uneducated.