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The United States recently declared ISIS guilty of genocide against the Yazidis and other ethnic groups within its conquered territory. No doubt, the rape and enslavement of Yazidi women, in addition to the slaughter of Yazidi men and the horrors inflicted upon other minority groups, constitute genocide. To ignore the ISIS rampage in Syria and Iraq as anything but genocide would be to erase the untold suffering and death of its victims, writes columnist H. A. Goodman in an article published in the Huffington Post.

The author reflects on the meaning of the word genocide saying it was invented by Yale Professor Dr. Raphael Lemkin while trying to find a way to describe the mass slaughter of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

“Therefore, any notion of a debate regarding the murder of 1.5 million Armenians is simply a political smokescreen. The genocide happened; it happened to the Armenians, and the man who invented the word acknowledged this fact”

The author expresses hope, that the next president of the United States will honor the victims of a genocide that 20 nations (including France, Sweden, Russia, the Vatican, and Canada) have already acknowledged, suggesting “ The time for politics, and specifically the kowtowing to pressures exhibited by the Turkish government, should be over. Yes, America must label ISIS atrocities as genocide, but to ignore using the word with the Armenian genocide is an affront to history.”

“We owe future generations, and the victims of past atrocities, the courage to act today, regardless of political pressure. The United States must official recognize the Armenian Genocide. Our next president must utilize the word that Raphael Lemkin created, after studying and researching the plight of the Armenian people during the Ottoman empire,” concludes Goodman.