The Yazidi genocide and the imperfect fulfillment of ‘never again’
By Samuel Russell
Tuesday, Aug 26, 2025
The U.S. military's actions at Mount Sinjar in August 2014 influenced how the Army thinks about mass atrocity response in fundamental ways, the author of this op-ed argues. Here, a C-17 Globemaster III loadmaster watches bundles of halal meals parachute to the ground during a humanitarian airdrop mission over Iraq on Aug. 9, 2014. (Staff Sgt. Vernon Young Jr./U.S. Air Force)
In August 2014, I was serving as a colonel at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, as part of a joint forces land component command that was the precursor to Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve. From the Third Army operations center, we coordinated humanitarian airdrops out of Qatar as Daesh forces surrounded Mount Sinjar, trapping over 40,000 Yazidi civilians on a barren mountaintop. What followed was not just another military operation. It was proof that “never again” need not remain an empty promise.
Claire Barrett’s recent Military Times article “The etymology of genocide and the myth of ‘never again’” reminds us that naming a crime is not enough. The 2014 Daesh genocide against the Yazidis in northern Iraq is a tragic example, but also a rare case where the world did respond, and in doing so, prevented a far greater catastrophe.
At the beginning of August that year, Daesh launched a brutal campaign against the Yazidi people, a religious minority in the Sinjar region of Iraq. Over 5,000 Yazidi men were executed. More than 6,800 women and children were abducted, many subjected to rape, forced marriage and slavery. Mass graves were later uncovered across Sinjar. The United Nations confirmed that ISIS’ actions met the legal definition of genocide.
Yet amid this horror, the United States and its coalition partners acted rapidly and decisively. As Daesh forces encircled Mount Sinjar, the U.S. launched what today we would call a mass atrocity response operation that combined precision airstrikes, humanitarian airdrops and coordination with Kurdish forces. From Kuwait, we coordinated the complex logistics of delivering food and water to locations on Mount Sinjar where the stranded Yazidi people were surrounded by Daesh fighters. This required continued coordination with the theater sustainment command, the air component command, U.S. Central Command and the Defense Logistics Agency to ensure that Army riggers had the bulk rations and water to palletize and air crews were ready to load for each night’s mission over the course of two weeks.
https://www.navytimes.com/opinion/2025/08/26/the-yazidi-genocide-and-the-imperfect-fulfillment-of-never-again/
