Which strikes me as something to consider given all the bad craziness coming out of Washington these days.One of the boldest features of the [ Prevention of Genocide Act ] was also one of its most novel. Instead of requiring the president to prove that genocide was being committed, which is always hard to do while atrocities are still under way and which an administration aligned with Hussein had no incentive to demonstrate, Pell's legislation reversed the burden: President Reagan was required to certify that Iraq was not using chemical weapons against the Kurds and that it was not committing genocide.