While the policy of the American government was never genocide, that of the Indians certainly was. The Indians were never inhibited by any of the scruples that restrained the US army. The history abounds with accounts of “acts of devilish cruelty” that had “no parallel in savage warfare,” in the words of one army officer quoted by [Guenter] Lewy. Rape and the slaughter of non-combatants was common during Indian raids, as was torture of prisoners. The concepts of human rights and the ethical conduct of warfare are inventions of the white race. No other race invented them independently, and certainly, the Indians knew nothing of them. Far from being proof of the barbarism of the white race, then, the wars against the Indians testify to the unique compassion of Western culture.