"I've been thinking about what we talked about before. It's not enough to survive. One has to be worthy of surviving."
-Adama to Starbuck.
Why does Humanity deserve to survive, if we are willing to commit genocide, just to save our own skins?
The germans in WWII committed Genocide against the jews. The responce was not Genocide against the germans.
The American Settlers committed Genoicde against the natives. I don't see anyone seriously suggesting that the few natives who are left commit genocide against the americans in order to preserve their race...
What the Cylons did was wrong. That doesn't make exterminating them right.
You are painting with a VERY wide brush, and I have a problem with some of the examples you gave.
The Nazi's attempted to exterminate the Jews- who were not a threat to the Nazis. The Jews never had the opportunity to commit genocide against the Nazis, or perhaps they would have. It's not like the people were so different from one another, that their religion would have prevented the Jews from commiting acts of murder against the Nazi's if given the choice.
And it should be noted that the Nazi survivors of the war, and their offspring in years since, HAVE suffered immensely. Some might even say that these people suffered as much as the Jews themselves had, and they were'nt all guilty of war crimes, or any other crime. They allied themselves with the wrong side, or were nothing more than the children and relatives of Nazi party members.
What's more, the Jews couldn't target the German people, or the French, or the Russians, or any of the various people that would have exterminated the Jew's- because the Jews were also German, French, Russian, etc.
As to the American settlers; Not all of them were hostile, or murderous towards the Native people- there were many cases of American settlers living in harmony with the American Indians.
In it's desire to claim the continent, and it's resources- the government waged genocidal war against the native Americans. In particular it was against the very large, powerful, and dangerous, hostile Indian tribes in the "wild" West. Notably, these were the Apache, Commanche, and Sioux tribes- and they had little compunction about killing the settlers ( women, children, et all. ) as well.
These days, our nation honors these people, and have made some gesture of reparations to those that were treated wrongfully. My own father-in law works on a reservation in Arizona that's as large as several European nations that I have visited.
There was no nation willing, or able, to save the American Indians, from the US government. No one could have stopped our government if we were truely bent on their destruction. Obviously, they knew it was wrong to completely exterminate those proud people.
So I'm not sure you can say that we really committed genocide against the Indians. If that was really the case, there probably would not be any Indians, reservations, casinos, place-names, or holidays such as Thanksgiving- when we honor the memory of the Native Americans that saved the European settlers from starvation.
My own family name harkons back to the original thirteen colonies. I know, and have been taught- that I owe those native people a debt of gratitude. I know, and am proud of the fact- that I too am a descendant of native American heritage. The blood in my veins is mixed with that of the Seneca.
Anyway, I'm not saying that genocide is ever justified... but if I was ever the victim of a genocidal campaign, I might not have a problem wiping out enough of the enemy to prevent that genocidal campaign from continuing.
I wonder if this could be compared to our desire to erradicate certain biological species that carry diseases dangerous to no one but Humanity- For instance, what about the mosquito? Is it wrong to destroy ALL mosquitoes, if they could kill us all with malaria? What about the screw worm, the bot fly, and the flea?
Is it reasonable to spare the Cylons merely because they are sentient, but choose to endure plague-ridden vermin, because it's wrong to erradicate a life form?
Seems to me, reformatting the toasters en masse is a matter of survival at this point, and I've got to do what I must in order to survive.
If they can't live with us, then we'll have to ensure they are no longer a threat to us- and a dead enemy is not going to hurt my children in this existence.
