It is imperative that the Obama administration take immediate action to prevent the mass murder of 30,000 to 50,000 people in northern Iraq.

The victims are Yazidis, members of an ancient non-Muslim religious minority. The murderers are the mujahideen (holy warriors) of the Islamic State, who have already ethnically cleansed whole cities of Christians and butchered thousands of Shiite Muslims in the attempt to turn Iraq into their version of an ideal “Islamic state.” The mujahideen consider the Yazidis to be “devil worshipers,” so the Yazidis can expect absolutely no quarter from their persecutors.

In the current crisis, tens of thousands of Yazidis who fled the city of Sinjar when the Islamic State conquered it are trapped on nearby Mount Sinjar without food, water, or medical care. These people are dying of thirst. Some of them were already dying two days ago. If they do not receive water immediately thousands will die within days. It is possible that nearly all of them could die within a week, depending on how much water is actually available.

The US must act immediately. There is no room here for hesitation. If the US does not take action immediately, this could be for Obama what Rwanda was for Bill Clinton and the other leaders of the advanced world that absolutely refused to do anything to stop the genocide of the Tutsis: An indelible moral stain that will, or should, be remembered as long as they are.

This story appeared in the Washington Post Tuesday, Aug. 5, but did not begin to receive any substantial attention in the press until the evening of Aug. 6, when the danger of death for tens of thousands of people had already been known for over 24 hours. Even now, the story often does not appear on the main webpages of many of the important international news sites and even if one looks in the “World” section, the story is usually one headline among many. Here is link to one excellent story by CNN published Wednesday.

I cannot understand why an ongoing genocide is not receiving more attention. After the Holocaust, Cambodia, and Rwanda, we said “never again,” but then the old indifference just came back every time.

And where, oh where, are the international human rights organizations? Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and all the others, why are you not screaming about this to the high heavens? Good heavens, if there has ever been a time to drop complacency, pull out all the stops and use some of your moral capital, this is it.

I am sickened beyond measure by the world’s indifference to this massive horror.

The most important thing we can do is to put pressure on the Obama administration to immediately supply the people on Mount Sinjar with water, first and foremost, and also food and medical supplies.

If you want to help, you can write to your congressional representative. You can use Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or other social media to spread the word within your social network and encourage others to do the same, and especially to write to their representatives. Right now the critical task is to create the public concern that will push the Obama administration to act swiftly and appropriately.