OK, so I've pulled out my copy of Shake Hands to see what the General himself had to say - and what he has to say, I believe; the man is an absolute straight shooter whose harshest critic is himself.
Page 239:
"I accept responsibility for every decision I made that day, on the days previously, on they days after - for my conduct on the entire mission. I will try to tell the story so that you understand that this was not a day of one or two isolated incidents and a few decisions. It was a day that felt like a year, where there were hundreds of incidents and decisions that had to be made in seconds.
I didn't raise the issue of the Belgian soldiers [who he has just learned have been captured and are being tabasser ] because I wanted to discuss it with Bagosora alone. I needed to asess its impact on the entire mision, and because I wanted to talk to the senior [Rwandan] army leadership, who I hoped might be able to save the situation. It was that decision, in part, that contributed to the deaths of ten soldiers under my command. I wanted to proceed by negotiation, as I realized that I could not use force without the certainty of more casulties. I did not have the offensive force to take on a dug-in garrison of more than a thousand troops. I considered a rescue mission irresponsible. If we used force against the RGF compound, we were then a legitimate target and would become a third beligierent. My aim that morning was to avoid a confrontation, regain control of the rogue units in Kigali, and keep the dialogue and the prospects of the peace accord alive."
That's not "appeasement", that's a cold hard unflinching assessment of the situation on the ground. If he negotiates, he still has some influence on the course of events. He retains his freedom of action. He holds out some hope of being able to save some people, not least of whom are his mostly Belgian peacekeeper force, plus all the expats who are still in country. If he fights, then every blue beret and expat is a target throughout the entire country, plus, with him dead, they are leaderless.
Remember - the Belgians are being blamed for the presidential assasination that touched off the genocide. It is only the neutrality of the blue beret and his own constant diplomatic efforts that is keeping the wholesale slaughter from engulfing the peacekeepers as well.
But he WANTS to fight! Dallaire is a hold-em-by-the-nose, kick-em-in-the-ass soldier. He has assesed his military options. Page 241:
"To have any success at storming a well-fortified camp, I'd need several hundered men [which would only make him outnumbered 2:1] supported by light armour and mortars. My Quick Reaction Force was still woefully inadaquate. Most of the Ghanian contingent was in the demilitarized zone far away to the north, without any heavy weapons or vehicles, never mind ammunition. They too, were vulnerable. The Ghanians we had moved into the city were dispersed on protection jobs all over Kigali. They and the Tunisians at the CND guarding the RPF were lightly armed, possesed no transport, and already had essential duities. The Belgians were also spread all over town. Any attempt at taking the camp or even part of it would be an irresponsible mission. Even if we had been able to assemble an intervention force, fight our way through several roadblocks, and get into and out of camp with our men, we would then have to withdraw through the city, past more roadblocks, and gain the airfield, as we had no place of retreat where we could realistically withstand the inevitable RPF counterattacks and the bombardments from their 105mm and 122mm guns.
I thought of Mogidishu, where a few months earlier the Americans - the most capable military force in the world - had botched the abduction attempt of a couple of aides to a Somalli warlord, and had suffered 18 dead and more than 70 wounded. The Malaysian and Pakistani peacekepers who tried to rescue the American troops took 90 casulties - and those forces were large, well-trained, and well equipped."
Note too that the RPF wasn't just a bunch of thugs. It may have been thugs with machetes carrying out the genocide, but the primary opponent Dallaire faced was a trained military force of over a thousand men (the Presidential Guard and elements of the Recce Battalion and the Para-Commando battalion.
FACT: NOBODY was getting in there with the UN forces on hand
FACT: Any attempt would have resulted in open season on peacekeepers and non-tribal civillians alike
FACT: An alive Dalllaire was able to provide leadership and to negotiate a withdraw of the UN force
FACT: Dallaire's force consisted of 1100 useless Bangladeshis (who sabotaged their own vehicles and weapons) 800 solid Ghanians (spread throughout the DMZ with no transport) and 450 Belgians, wit no stocks of ammo or other essential combat supplies. He had 15,000 civillians sheltering in his compounds.
FACT: By keeping his cool and negotiating his ass off, Dallaire was able to negotiate a truce so that he could evacuate 650 expats on 10 flights (page 290)
FACT: He pleaded for re-enforcements from the UN on a daily basis, so that he COULD realistically switch to offensive operations to halt the genocide. He was repeatedly refused.
FACT: He stayed at his post, doing everything he could, right until the bitter end. He never took the easy way out and ran.
FACT: Daillaire, AGAINST ORDERS, relaxed the ROE to allow disarming of beligerants and the firing of warning shots to disperse crowds. He was never (so far as I can tell) ordered not to attempt a rescue operation, he came upon that decision after performing his own combat estimate.
FACT: When Dallaire arrived on the scene and discovered that the 10 Belgians had been captured, he saw two of them down and was told that they had already been beaten. It is very possible that they were already dead, making the whole discussion moot.
I think he absolutely did the right thing. Unquestionably. He accepted the military reality of the situation, and had the moral courage to keep trying to stop the genocide by the only realistic means at his disposal. He could have run, but he did not. He could have retired into obscurity, but he did not.
What more do we want out of our commanders?
KevinB, you want grandstanding? How about page 417:
"I spent almost an hour with the international media, accusing them fairly candidly of dropping the ball. As far as I was concerend, their mission was to report the truth and emabrass their fence-sitting political leaders witout reserve, to never let them off the hook for the Rwandan Genocide"
Hell, how long has his book been on the best-seller's list? How many times has the movie played on CBC? I say he's doing a far better job of getting his word out than any other general in Canadian history....
DG
