Sometimes Old Men Die with Little Boy Faces

Since at least 1998, I have had a special interest in crimes against humanity. I remember in high school strongly resolving to be an international war crime prosecuting attorney; I even searched on the old-school AOL directory and found a woman that worked in the Hague and emailed her. I don't remember what came of it. It is so hard to understand what man can do to another man. And then there is so little justice.

Under the principle of national sovereignty, nation states were supposed to have responsibility for enforcing their own criminal justice. But all too often they had shown themselves unwilling or incapable of prosecuting the worst culprits, either because those responsible were still in power, or because they had taken refuge in other countries and were now out of reach. (economist)

I strongly believe all people should be entitled to special, basic rights. More broadly, I believe people should be allowed to do whatever they want so long as they don't harm another or infringe upon another's personal property rights. But so what? This is just what Krystal believes it means to be human-- to respect all other beings because they are in the same struggle as we are.

I believe there is no punishment that is worthy of the horrendous crimes commited in mass genocides and ethnic wars. The courts are slow and their power is limited (even the USA will not participate lest its own soldiers and commanding officers are indicted).

Walking through the carcass of Auschwitz-Birkineau in 2004 made it clear that the crimes commited with such hatred cannot be deterred by fear of punishment. People that are able to support such acts, whether because of religious or other ethnic causes, sincerely believe they are correct.

Over the span of all of humanity it appears that we never evolved out of our warring clan mentality. The fear of those that are different is nearly as raw still as our animalistic sex drive (see MTV for evidence). I think all of us have a fear of that which we don't understand. The sudden nervousness that spread across America towards Muslims in 2001 is an obvious example. I'm not saying everyone is racist, but we are natually suspicious of different customs and beliefs.

But in my mind, I still haven't been able to resolve how people can maim, torture, and brutally kill each other because of this fear. Perhaps I have never been in the situation and will never understand. And while I used to want to understand, I find myself lately hoping that I never will because those that commit the crimes are still human, like you and me.

My only hope is that one day all people will, for one reason or another, have incentives to harness this fear and use it productively. Some argue the resolution to war is globalization-- by monetary incentive, we can get along. Money is just the lubricant that makes the machine of trade possible and when we have trade we must understand our trading partners. Maybe. But the areas most affected by genocide are small contenders in the global market and they face internal frictions.

Many of these frictions are the result of western countries meddling in local affairs decades ago and then leaving irresponsibly once it became out of fashion and unprofitable to keep up the empire. Is it a western responsibility to "fix" these problems? It is argued that the international courts are just the west's way of forcing its own morals and shackles on the third world. Sadly, this system is reactive. It only punishes after the crimes have been committed.

I don't know the solution to obtaining world peace, unfortunately. Love and hate are two things I can't ever seem to reason.