Never Again...

At the end of World War II, the "world" (e.g., US, France, GBR, Russia) promised mass genocide would never happen again. Yet now, some 60-odd years later, it is. It is happening again in Africa. Nicholas Kristof has been writing about Darfur in his NYTimes Op-Ed column for months, if not years. The articles make me sad. They make me feel guilty. And perhaps for that reason, I have since avoided reading them. I too am now culpable in whatever small way for heinous events occurring halfway around the world.

Until today, I thought at worst (and it is pretty bad), the US could be accused of turning a blind eye. Other countries like China and Russia are far more culpable as they have leveraged their positions in the UN Security Council to block US-led sanctions against the Sudanese dictatorship. Both China and Russia also have vested interests in Sudan. China's lucrative oil contracts send huge amounts of hard currency to the Sudanese government, which they use to purchase Russian arms and pay the Janjaweed militias. It is a sad testament to our times that the United Nations which was created in part to prevent such crises has ignored the events unfolding in Darfur. The new Secretary General refuses to even use the word genocide in relation to Darfur. Not only that, but there is no one willing to take a principled and moral stand on the issue.

Still, it would be dishonest of me to claim to having given this issue much thought as of late. However, tonight, '60 Minutes' aired a segment on the situation in Darfur. While the human suffering was tragic, it was the connection between the 'War on Terror' and genocide that was the most troubling.

The Sudanese government sheltered Osama Bin Laden for a number of years and as a result has a veritable trove of information on Al Qaeda. So while President Bush has been denouncing Sudan publicly at home and at the UN, where he bandies about the word 'genocide', he has been cozying up to the Sudanese government in secret to gain tidbits of information on Osama and Al Qaeda. Although I disagree with Bush on many things, Darfur was not one of them. I respected him for taking up their cause (albeit late) and taking the moral high ground. But now even that is not true. It is all just posturing. Bush's accusations and proclamations do not scare the Sudanese government, and they already have Russia and China in their pocket. They know the US military is spread too thin between Afghanistan and Iraq. Not to mention the last time the US sent troops into Africa (Somalia), it was a complete and utter disaster that still to this day haunts Clinton. I doubt any American president wants to send troops to Africa.

All in all their seems to be little hope for the people of Darfur. Even if allies in Chad and Eritrea (interesting since it is a Christian country) come to their aid, it will serve no purpose other than to inflame this national crisis into a regional one much like what is happening in Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, etc. But perhaps looking back on this in a few years when the damage has been done, we will tell ourselves, "never again".