Political Quotes

“I rise today to mark the anniversary of one global tragedy and to call attention to another, a tragedy that is occurring even at this moment. Fourteen years ago this week, the world stood by as 800,000 Rwandans were brutally murdered, largely along ethnic lines, in only 100 days. Despite early warning signs and pleas for greater international attention, we did little more as a nation than watch as this act of genocide was allowed to continue. Canadian GEN Romeo Dallaire at the time was commander of a small U.N. peacekeeping force in Rwanda when the genocide began. He desperately tried to get the United Nations to approve a more robust force to end the killings. Despite his efforts, the Security Council voted instead to cut back the United Nations' force. Nearly 2,500 troops were replaced with 450 poorly trained and poorly equipped soldiers. We all know the tragic result. Today the world looks back in shame at the inaction in Rwanda. We all failed. In 1998, President Clinton visited Rwanda and spoke to those who lost loved ones in those horrible times. President Clinton said: We in the United States and the world community did not do as much as we could have and should have done to try to limit what occurred in Rwanda in 1994. President Clinton's decision to visit Rwanda was an honorable one. It was the right choice.…”