Genocide: Worse Than War explores many different aspects as to why genocides happen, and why it is that we are seemingly powerless to stop it. In my opinion, our power to stop such acts politically is limited by countries’ general reluctance to engage in an armed conflict. Since corrupt regimes are often responsible for genocide in the first place, it is usually up to foreign governments to intervene. When we don’t intervene, these genocides tend to get worse and worse.

I’m from the inner city in Chicago, which is home to thousands of Bosnian Muslims who took refuge from the war. In fact, my best friend from my childhood is Bosnian, and I constantly heard stories that were unbearably brutal. Yet it wasn’t until I saw this documentary that I started asking the question as to why the rest of the world, especially powerful industrial countries, are so reluctant to stop it. The reality is that international politics is so complex that if something doesn’t directly effect our country in America, we have a tendency to ignore or downplay genocide as inevitable or unstoppable.
Although as a nation we almost unanimously are morally against genocide, our reluctance to stop in my opinion reflects our value system. The cost of war and the notion that most genocides don’t directly affect us provides an easy excuse to put our moral obligations to the side in favor of capitalistic policies. Some say that money is the root of all evil, and in this case our obsession with capital appears to be a big deterrent to fulfilling our moral responsibilities as humanitarians. For this to substantially change would mean an overhaul in our value system, and until that happens genocide will continue this pattern. In the United States, individualism makes up a huge portion of our values. It works as both a positive and a negative by inspiring innovation and self-reliancy, but in regards to humanitarian issues it’s almost as if we find other reasons to look the other way, since afterall its “not our problem.” Until we and other industrialized nations feel differently, there will be no deterrent for corrupt political leaders in other parts of the world to stop these innocent killings.