Human Rights Watch reports:
Iraq is quickly slipping back into authoritarianism as its security forces abuse protesters, harass journalists, and torture detainees. Despite U.S. government assurances that it helped create a stable democracy, the reality is that it left behind a budding police state.
— Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director of Human Rights Watch
I suppose that’s not the same thing as the Sunni genocide or the death squad massacres hidden in plain sight or the loud whispers, which we blogged about in 2005 and 2006 . But it’s a reminder.
In his book, “Genocide as State Secret,” Alfred de Zayas demonstrates that secrecy is a constitutive element of genocide. He also explains that the secrecy is made even easier in an atmosphere of deception, war psychosis, and terror. In the global world with all of its transparency, genocide will always be hidden in plain sight.
A group called “The International Initiative to Prosecute US Genocide in Iraq” has been formed to try to prosecute the perpetrators. Their website succinctly summarizes the situation:
“Over one million dead, a fifth of the population exiled, and millions more injured, alongside total infrastructural collapse and an unprecedented promotion of corruption, sectarianism and death squads, constitutes destruction substantial enough to negate the possibility of Iraq functioning as a viable entity. That is and heralds genocide.”