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checking of information and checks-and-balances onthe powers of decision makers who formulate thepolicies of responding to dangers. Thus, there wereAmerican military and political leaders who calledearnestly for pre-emptive nuclear strikes against thepopulation centers of the Soviet Union in the yearsbefore Glasnost and Perestroika. What a tragedy thatwould have been.Early Warning Process 05. OrientationTowardsForce for Self-defense and in Solution of Conflicts. Asociety's orientation towards force for self-defense inits solution of conflicts is the next early warningprocess. It is, of course, a continuation of the previousindicator since the question now is how much forceshould be used in response to varying degrees of threataimed towards one's people. It is human to want todestroy our enemies completely, but there are dangersof misjudging threats; the use of force in self-defensein itself may be excessively brutal and destructive, andno longer for defense as it is for brutality, sadism, andmurder. The preservation of life is no less a continuingmoral goal when one has to use force in self-defensethan it is in times before the crisis.Early Warning Process 06. Overt Violence andDestructiveness. This early warning process involvesa society's use of overt violence and destructiveness.Some societies are concerned that their police, army,and population at large not be inherently violent, sothat, for example, police do not kill even when theyare doing their duty to stop criminals and enemies. Theunarmed English bobby with his night stick was asymbol for many years of this kind of police powerwhich is intended to minimize undue escalation and useof violence. The degree to which violence is heralded,rehearsed, and taught on American television isobviously connected to the very real dangers too manyAmericans face from assault and murder in many citiesacross their great continent. A society that limitsexposure to violence in its media, and develops moremature attitudes in its journalistic reports of actualevents of violence, can also be expected to be lesssusceptible to being drawn into genocidal violencestowards others;Early Warning Process 07. Dehumanization of aPotential Victim Target Group. This early warningprocess refers to dehumanization of a potential victimtarget group. "Polok jokes" and "nigger jokes" thatmay seem like innocuous humor can become the basisin the anxious times of societies for assigning targetgroups of peoples a status as less-than-human or nonhuman,and therefore not deserving of the protectionsthat human society gives to its bonafide members.Every person and every society must decide how muchto curtail the natural humor of ethnic differences,especially when these become manifestly prejudicialstatements openly devaluing and degrading anothergroup. When in a society there develops an actualchoice of whether or not to attack and exterminate agiven minority group, the extent to which that minoritypreviously has been assigned a role of sub-human ornon-human will play an important role even in thereadiness of the soldiers on the front line to executesuch a policy.Early Warning Process 08. Perception of VictimGroup as Dangerous. This early warning process isthe perception of the potential victim group as dangerous.Incongruously,many of the minority groups whohave been targeted as less-than-us or not-human at thesame time are treated as if they were a most dangerousforce that threatens to wipe out an entire society. Inother words, the dehumanized are also invested withsuper-human powers. As groups they are alleged tohave physical, economic, religious, or racial powersto destroy us, and this situation naturally means thatit is proper to invoke self-defense mechanisms againstthem, and to seek to "destroy them before they destroyus. " The fact that these people also have been definedas not-human then allows one to be cruel and brutalto them. Genocide is now fully possible.Early Warning Process 09. Availability of VictimGroup. The early warning system continues with adimension of the availability of the victim group. Thistopic is very difficult to speak about. There is nojustification for any degree of excusing victimizers asif their victims were "asking for it" or were in any wayto blame for being available to be victimized. Responsibilityfor the victimization by the perpetrator standsin its own right and must be totally condemned.However, without losing respect for the victims orempathy for their plight, it has to be noted that groupsand nations that are, to begin with, defenseless, weak,naive, and susceptible to being bullied and terrorizeddo make the victimization process more possible. Thus,the State of Israel represents a necessary historicalcorrective process by which the Jewish people havemoved from being naive scholars of the Bible andromantic believers in the goodness of God to being astrong nation with an excellent army that will, legitimately,never again allow Jews to be killed en masse.The fact also is that, when former victim-peoplesbecome strong, they must also learn not to overuse theirpower as other nations have done to them.Early Warning Process 10. Legitimation ofVictimization by Leadership Individuals and Institutions.Early Warning, Intervention, and Prevention of Genocide 155