Summary Of A Problem From Hell By Samantha Power

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Samantha Power served as the United Nations Ambassador to the United States from
2013 to 2017, she is an author, diplomat, and an American academic. Through her excerpt, “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide”, Power sets out to inform U.S. citizens, U.S. diplomats, and U.N. officials about the genocide that took place in Rwanda in order to show how this atrocious event could have been put to a halt. Power discusses that the problem with the killing in Rwanda was due to the United States not defining the acts as genocide. The importance of this is because as U.S diplomats did not characterize the slaughtering as genocide, it damp- ened public enthusiasm towards the issue. Power ultimately argues against the US not helping stop …show more content…

has given to- wards the prevention of genocide by providing a list of facts and past events to formulate specific strategies that could have been implemented to stop the Hutu insurgency. Power begins by stat- ing instances where the U.S. could have done things differently, she mentions, “Instead of de- manding a UN withdrawal, quibbling over costs, and coming forward (belatedly) with a plan bet- ter suited to caring for refugees than to stopping massacres, U.S. officials could have worked to make UNAMIR a force to contend with.”(Power 154). Power lists facts and past events to …show more content…

leaders, and U.N. officials that the U.S. ulti- mately could have done a lot more to help the genocide in Rwanda. Power has most definitely impacted my thinking and views on this topic as I did not realize the U.S. had such an immense role in the genocide of Rwanda. This assignment has provided me with an interesting insight and that is, I did not realize how effective evidence and the use of appeals would help an argumenta- tive piece of writing so much.
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