Pentagon statements signaling inaction served as a green light for genocide

Evidence

Public comments from the U.S. Defense Department also violated a key military principle: Never tell an aggressor what you may and may not do. Even if you are not going to act, never let an aggressor know what to expect. The comments from the Pentagon on the uselessness of air power to deter genocide and on the impossibility of stopping it with anything less than massive casualties were a signal that the U.S. and the NATO powers would not respond, no matter how heinous the assault-a “green light” for further genocide. — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 327