Quote Originally Posted by davidbfpo View Post

There was a debate here on DR Congo and Rwanda, with separate threads. IIRC no-one advocated a Western R2P at time, although there was a debate afterwards and Canadian General Dalliare appeared.

We then had several SME and "boots on the ground" members who added their experience and weight: Tom Odom & Stan Reber come to mind.

There is a thread open now on Burundi, which is a simmering small war. No-one here IIRC has advocated a Western R2P. To be fair I somehow expect we are paying in part some of UN / African Union involvement there (as we are elsewhere in Africa).
Yes, I am aware of the D.R.C. thread, and I mentioned Burundi only because of spillover. I brought this particular conflict up because Outlaw had asserted that the Syrian Civil War involved genocide against Sunni Arabs and demanded foreign intervention under international law.

I countered on the legal or diplomatic aspects, and suggested the ongoing D.R.C./Burundi War as a more worthy mission for humanitarian intervention, given:

  • The far higher death toll
  • Most fatalities being civilians (whereas in Syria they are combatants)
  • More fatalities per year
  • A far longer time period


It was a tongue-in-cheek suggestion as clearly Outlaw is more interested in ending the Syrian Civil War (as well as the Russo-Ukrainian one) and on his terms, rather than say ending all ongoing wars or saving the most people, irrespective of location or the country(ies) involved. It is one thing to be more interested in what Russia and Iran are up to - a bias I share - it is quite another to cry genocide selectively...