Can genocide be justified?

If there is such a conflict between two or more groups can genocide be justified? As they both stand they exercise soft and hard power against one another and a tumultuous conflict that spans centuries, generations, and millennia, would a genocide or extermination of one side be justified? Morally justified? If they have been historically cruel or callous to yours and you have the opportunity to end them, is it morally justified? @Spike What about a soft power or generational end? For example China slowly moving Chinese citizens to Tibet to in time breed them out? Or persecution of nomadic peoples over time? Or the destruction of such resources, territories, social xyz to erode their proliferation? Or the destruction of country and the attack on diasporic people; Jewish peoples for example. It would not include a massive slaughter, would that make it more justified?
Answers

Midnight Run

The word "genocide" is generally associated with the Holocaust - which then alludes to the Armenian genocide from time-to-time. In these cases, the world is quick to pass judgment with a resounding "NO!". Yet, these same people will laud the bombing of Dresden and the "bombs-to-end-all-wars" that were dropped on Japan because they were done in the name of Democracy. The Geneva convention bans the mass killing of civilians during wartime - it's called "crimes against humanity". Granted, this specific rule didn't come about until 1949 but "crimes against humanity" was one of the main accusations at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946, so legal or not, it set a precedent that should have been used against the Allies as well. But then the old familiar word "justified" gets tossed in and there is no one to prosecute the winners.

They Pelted Us With Rocks And Garbage

No

MajorArmedMan

Really have to ask this question? Genocide based on what you are can NEVER be justified.

Pearl

i dont think so since god did say thou shall not kill

Anonymous

This is not an "if", there are those who practice genocide against the unborn. When a child is aborted because of a genetic defect- it is genocide. As for ending the socially acceptable genocide, it is hard to fight the academic elite who preach eugenics which has it's roots in social Darwinism. Abortions are not the form of eugenics they practice, they hope to rid the human race of homosexuality by promoting it. None us can stop what has is seen as morally acceptable genocide by our intellectuals.

Spike

People make their own justifications. Some will think it's right, some won't. Justification, I pay no attention to the meaning of the word. As it changes from person to person, it has no solid meaning. It's ruled by emotion and perception. But to correlate morals with genocide is laughable. Don't care what justifications people find convenient. A massive slaughter of human lives can never be moral.