The 100 days of killing that became known as the Rwandan genocide began on 7 April 1994. Hutu extremists murdered about 800,000 Tutsis while major powers, led by the US, found reasons not to save them.
Even as evidence of the atrocities mounted, Bill Clinton ordered his own staff not to call the killings a genocide, because that would have drawn political and legal pressures for US intervention, and blocked the United Nations security council from sending troops to stop the slaughter.
The US wasn’t alone. French soldiers in Rwanda rescued foreigners and their pets but did nothing to save ordinary Tutsis. Instead, France indulged its colonialist fantasies about regions of influence and sought to prop up the Hutu extremist government leading the genocide.
The international reaction to Rwanda was informed by the disastrous peacekeeping attempt in Somalia which was initiated in December 1992.
There was no political will amongst any nations to mire themselves in another costly and deadly intervention in Africa.
To point the finger at the US and allies is to ignore the historical and political context in which these events occurred.