From the better late than never category, Secretary of State John Kerry has finally declared that ISIS is committing genocide against Christians, Yazidis & Shi’ite Muslims in Iraq, Syria & Libya.
As recently as last month, Kerry resisted utilizing the term when he appeared in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and was taken to task for this by longtime Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher. But Congress and Christian groups like The Knights of Columbus kept up the pressure on the Obama Administration.
But the pressure must be sustained. After all, acknowledging genocide is but the first step. The next step to put the genocide to an end. Now that Kerry has declared that ISIS is committing genocide what are they going to do about it? It was only yesterday that State Department spokesman Mark Toner noted, “Acknowledging that genocide or crimes against humanity have taken place in another country would not necessarily result in any particular legal obligation for the United States.”
That statement effectively makes Kerry’s declaration an empty gesture.
Ultimately, the only way to stop ISIS’ genocide is to defeat it on the battlefield. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration has not been able to back up its stated policy of “degrading and destroying ISIS”. This is yet another job that will be left to the next President. Unfortunately, I’m not sure the next President will be any better suited to carrying out this task than our current one.