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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Cachecoins, post: 4593818, member: 111237&quot;]Numbers are important as I said. Tell a Jewish person that numbers aren&#039;t important. You are quoting something that is a &#039;it is said...&#039; blurb and while I would not refute it, I also wouldn&#039;t hold it as proof of anything save that if true, and it is clear rhat records were disposed of, it was simply to destroy proof of any complicity but does not confirm or dispell anything save what we already know is true, that atrocities were committed.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have read Leopold&#039;s Ghost and he agrees that the numbers of dead and exactly what percentage of those deaths can be attributed to direct and deliberate action by colonial officials are unknown. He is not an historian so he also reports information without citing sources. It&#039;s an important book but not without it&#039;s problems. While any crimes and death are unacceptable, there is a big difference between a few thousand and 10 million. There is a difference between repeating a shocking story and presenting a verifiable source for it.</p><p><br /></p><p>You talk about keeping historians honest but it only serves to muddy history further to present numbers derived through supposition as fact, presenting intent that wasn&#039;t there such as genocide or reporting a shocking story of unknown origin.&nbsp; It&#039;s dishonest.</p><p><br /></p><p>I can assure you I am not an apologist for Leopold and certainly if I am wrong in what I have presented here I would certainly admit it if presented with a reliable source. However, I believe that even with a dearth of information he is undoubtedly guilty of being duplicitous, lying and of presiding over crimes against humanity. I am just not willing to accept or to report the full extent of the crimes without reliable data as there are so many unknowns in this case.</p><p><br /></p><p>No hard feelings here. I thank you for engaging and discussing this. I was taught that when writing history, it is important to be objective and not make moral judgements. I am more than willing to admit i doubt know everything there is to know. </p><p><br /></p><p>If you are writing about Hitler and the Nazi party, it is not the historians job to pronounce them monsters or evil. The job is to present the known facts and allow the reader to conclude what they will. It just so happens the Nazis were meticulous record keepers and left behind plenty of indisputable proof of exactly what they did and why they did it. Sadly much of history is not as clear cut.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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