Yes. On Our Watch. We must urge the world to do the right thing.

[wivabef]

Darfur, on Bush's watch

Eight months into his presidency, George W. Bush was given a summary of an article that appeared in The Atlantic magazine by author Samantha Power. The article detailed the Clinton administration's abject failure to intervene in the 1994 genocide that claimed 800,000 lives in Rwanda.

Bush scrawled a notation in the margin of the document: "NOT ON MY WATCH."

But as Bush has acknowledged, in the Darfur region of western Sudan, genocide is occurring on his watch. Since September 2001, the month that the Atlantic article was published, Bush's attention has been diverted elsewhere, along with a great deal of the nation's military capability and hundreds of billions of dollars, to say nothing of the nation's moral authority.

THIS should have been the priority.

Now we must make it right.

Because this nation knows its wrong and the right thing to do is to do everything in our power to stop it.

It is not the easy thing.

IT IS THE RIGHT THING

[poseidon]

What more would you propose that we do, Elyzabeth? Our military is a little "busy" right now in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We need to keep what little we have left in the United States to keep our own nation safe.

We're petitioning the U.N. to try and do SOMETHING.

If we weren't currently overextended, I'd be the first in line to write GWB and tell him to send troops over there to clean it up. Right now, it is up to the worthless UN to do something -- anything -- and their response has been exactly what I expect from them.

Meanwhile, you've a slow and growing movement in the US to do things sans the government. Churches are getting involved (mine's been actively involved now for at least five years, drilling for water, building buildings, providing food, etc. -- each year our church sends over around twenty people from our congregation to help out -- twenty may not sound like a lot of help, but you need to consider the size of our church, and those who don't physically go do pour a lot of money into those missions).

So, I'll say what I said in the previous thread. The right thing to do, not the easy thing, is to pull out of the UN. The billions that we save by not funding a bunch of crooked cowards could be put right into the Sudanese problem and actually do something.

[realtraveller]

The mission of the United States military is to protect the United States.

[wivabef]

I posted this in another thread:

Thank you for your posts, and I know that I get heated up about it. YOu are all so kind to go easy on me. I cry daily with the thought of children dying ...orphaned. I know it happens elsewhere, but not nearly as flagrantly as in Darfur.

The problem as I think the Atlantic Monthly piece points out is paralysis.

It is the old adage about eating an elephant...one bite at a time.

But we (the world) not taking bites quick enouigh.

We take a bite and then put it aside.

Bush has recently been on the attack again to the UN. But he finds an ally in Khartoum for his obsessive fight against "THE TERRORISTS" which are only a very small group in his mind. Odd how he does not find the same characterists in the authoratarian government in Khartoum who gives power to heartless tribesmen on horses.

There are no easy solutions and I'm no expert, but I think that thought the US can go in strongly with might there are dozens of nations that could and should and we can help.

We are a weakened nation, but we can use our still considerable clout in the world to take on Khartoum one bite at a time...but with many people at the table, we can accomplish much more.

The tack will pretty much have to resemble the tack the world took against apartheid. Hit them at their pocketbooks.

It has already begun, but it is too slow. Universities are divesting from investments connected with Sudan.

Aid agencies need to be heavily armed and if private citizens need to pay for mercenaries to protect them, then so be it, especially in Chad.

And it needs to be front page news every day. It needs to be more important than terrorist men in hiding because they are so cowardly who send out a peep as if to say, "Look at me! Look at me! I'm the baddest!"

And we look.

The editors and producers around the world need to say "Put the hiding stooges on the back burner...far more people are dying at the hands of Al Bashir...his evil mug with bad captions should be put on the front page with the daily death count of his countries citizens written in the caption.

We do not have to stop with might...but we need to protect those who are...and the AU is not getting it done. They can't, they are feeble. The world can do better. There are nations ouit there who can help and we can provide what we can.

I'm so glad to see Hollywood getting involved. If that's what it takes for people to care. If it's because Dr. Pratt and Dr. Carter are in an IDP camp that suddenly people understand how terrifying it is for the people in that region, then good on them. And what was portrayed in the show was 100% accurate. The Janjaweed are fearless...what is there to be feared? Women gathering wood? Children with sticks? They attack the aid workers and steal their supplies.

We need to begin our therapy and recover from the paralysis. We need to make small movements en masse. There must be sanctions. We must continue to divest. I have called my stock broker and had to change an international fund as it had some Sudanese interests in it. I actually switched to a humanitarian fund.

It is all of us taking big bites.

[wivabef]

Although I do find it interesting that you both assumed I meant military power exclusively.

[wivabef]

We cannot pull out of the UN. We need to help the UN move to make the right choice.

The UN is not just a military and diplomatic agency. It also helps to oversee humanitarian efforts. As ineffective as I find it on the first two fronts, it is quite effective on the latter. We would be horribly wrong to pull out. That is like leaving a dysfunctional family when they need you most. We are stronger than that.

[poseidon]

wivabef said

Although I do find it interesting that you both assumed I meant military power exclusively.

Not to be a smartass, Elyzabeth, but what other options are there? Asking the scumbags that run that place (and Chad) if they'd please play nice?

Military response is the only thing that genocidal maniacs tend to care about. If you're thinking economic sanctions, I think you're mistaken.

[poseidon]

wivabef said

We cannot pull out of the UN. We need to help the UN move to make the right choice.

The UN is not just a military and diplomatic agency. It also helps to oversee humanitarian efforts. As ineffective as I find it on the first two fronts, it is quite effective on the latter. We would be horribly wrong to pull out. That is like leaving a dysfunctional family when they need you most. We are stronger than that.

The humanitarian overseeing activities are frightenly fraught with fraud (say that ten times fast).

I disagree that we would be wrong to pull out. I think it is wrong to continue to prop up the beast.

But, your dysfunctional family description is pretty good. On one hand, you've got "family members" that want to do good in the world, like parts of Europe, Canada and the U.S. Then, you've everyone else, who violate human rights, want to destroy each other, want to use UN power to quash its enemies, want to do whatever they can to harm the United States, etc., etc., etc.

Sometimes "tough love" is the best solution. Send the UN packing.

[wivabef]

poseidon said

Not to be a smartass, Elyzabeth, but what other options are there? Asking the scumbags that run that place (and Chad) if they'd please play nice?

Military response is the only thing that genocidal maniacs tend to care about. If you're thinking economic sanctions, I think you're mistaken.

I already responded with non-military options in my gigantic response, so there's no need to repeat myself. And yes, economic sanctions is part of that. It worked with Apartheid. It must be an all out offensive from every possible angle and it needs to be 24/7.

[erik_kosberg]

More sad news from Darfur.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Darfur rebels who signed a peace deal with the government killed and raped civilians to try to force them to support the unpopular accord

"Support our peace treaty or we'll kill you!"

[wivabef]

The attackers were members of the Minni Minnawi faction of the armed political group the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), reportedly supported by the Sudan armed forces and the Janjaweed," London-based Amnesty said.

Hmmmmm. More of the same, but under a different premise?

Ever heard of that joke?

"Death or oingy boingy?

Oingy Boingy is horrid! I choose death!

Okay! Death by oingy boingy!"

I heard reporter today on NPR (the Mark Steiner show) talking about how we have to face the fact that the entire world's war on terror will not end and will not end in our lifetime and probably not in our children's lifetime.

I see it as akin to keeping our heads above water and our legs from the shark. A stop gap of terror. How can we govern the ungovernable? Al Bashir isn't being stopped, and is only finding new ways of doing his evil deed.