# If Genocide Was The Only Option... **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 29, 2004, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-genocide-was-the-only-option/266601 "2004-09-29T02:37:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-genocide-was-the-only-option/266601/1 "2004-09-29T02:37:31Z")
This thread [(Another trainwreck Pit Thread)](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=278017), made me wonder. If the whole mideast vs. west, Israel vs. Palestinians, Muslims vs. Christianity/All Others situation (pick whichever you prefer), if genocide was the only way to end it, would you advocate it? For example, IMO, things, currently Aren’t Working. Israel’s tit-for-tat strategy seems to have failed miserably. Bush’s Big Gamble strategy is, IMO, failing spectacularly. Short-term it just makes our soldiers convenient targets, and long-term it’s a great terrorist recruiting scenario. Nobody seems to have managed a workable strategy. So, if the choice were to either maintain the continuing clusterfuck situation in perpuity or for the complete destruction of one of the sides involved…which would you choose? -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-genocide-was-the-only-option/266601/2 "2004-09-29T02:44:18Z")
Clusterfuck. Definitely. There’s always the probability that things will sort themselves out eventually. Besides, genocide means killing millions. At the current rate, only thousands will die in the clusterfuck. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-genocide-was-the-only-option/266601/3 "2004-09-29T02:51:37Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > Clusterfuck. Definitely. > > There’s always the probability that things will sort themselves out eventually. > > Besides, genocide means killing millions. At the current rate, only thousands will die in the clusterfuck. Hmm…maybe I should clarify. Currently a clusterfuck. Currently thousands dead. This was a bit more future-hypothetical. What you’re talking about is where things are **now**. I’m talking about ‘what would you advocate’. I **am** talking about millions (billions?) dead. If that’s what it took to END IT, rather than have it continue for another couple thousand years…? Well? -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-genocide-was-the-only-option/266601/4 "2004-09-29T02:56:28Z")
No. The ends don’t justify the means. Not to mention it’s a bit excessive, like cutting off your head because you were tired of getting headaches. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Fuji\_Kitakyusho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Fuji\_Kitakyusho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuji_Kitakyusho)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-genocide-was-the-only-option/266601/5 "2004-09-29T03:14:39Z")
If genocide is the only option, then I don’t have to advocate it, do I? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-genocide-was-the-only-option/266601/6 "2004-09-29T03:20:02Z")
Assuming you could pusha button and make over Muslim on Earrth drop dead… it wouldn’t make any difference. Within a generation or two, humanity will have divided itself up into large factions again based on largely imaginary differences and led by people who seek power for its own sake, and it’ll start all over. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-genocide-was-the-only-option/266601/7 "2004-09-29T03:38:28Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > I **am** talking about millions (billions?) dead. If that’s what it took to END IT, rather than have it continue for another couple thousand years…? > > Well? I’d still go for the clusterfuck. Perpetual low level warfare between the two sides will serve as a continuing reminder to _everyone else_ that behaving like a bunch of assholes exacts a price. And if they manage to sort it out without killing each other, it’ll serve as a positive example for other groups that fall into such idiocy, showing that there _is_ a way out of such death spirals. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-genocide-was-the-only-option/266601/8 "2004-09-29T03:57:43Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Assuming you could pusha button and make over Muslim on Earrth drop dead… it wouldn’t make any difference. Within a generation or two, humanity will have divided itself up into large factions again based on largely imaginary differences and led by people who seek power for its own sake, and it’ll start all over. That’s exactly right. There’s nothing inherently “Muslim” or “Christian” or “Jewish” about the current problems in the M.E. It’s all about territory and power, with religion used as an excuse to get people riled up. An other excuse, including a new religion, would do. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-genocide-was-the-only-option/266601/9 "2004-09-29T05:30:45Z")
The OP’s moral dilemma is nowhere near restrictive enough to force the desired answer. It should be something like: Suppose every last man, women and child of the Iroquois Nation is heavily armed and storming the base which holds the Doomsday device. Do you self-destruct the base before they reach it? Or do you let the world burn in the holocaust along with your high minded ideals. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-genocide-was-the-only-option/266601/10 "2004-09-29T05:49:57Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Perpetual low level warfare between the two sides will serve as a continuing reminder to _everyone else_ that behaving like a bunch of assholes exacts a price. And if they manage to sort it out without killing each other, it’ll serve as a positive example for other groups that fall into such idiocy, showing that there _is_ a way out of such death spirals. Spot on. The karma must work itself out. “Just say NO to genocide.” Seriously.