Little Hope in Darfur

The New Republic, Draws the inevitable conclusion about Darfur: (You'll have to pay to read the whole article or at least try out a free subscription, I think)

We wish we could identify some hopeful sign for Darfur on the horizon. But we are not naïve: The world has managed to live with the consequences of its inaction for three years now; surely it can do so for many more. Meanwhile, the confidence of those who terrorize and kill will only grow. Recently, NBC News interviewed a 17-year-old girl who was attacked in October 2006. "You are black," a man in a Sudanese uniform had taunted just before raping her. "You have no place here." Then he offered a prediction: "We will push you out of here. This land will remain for us." And you know what? He's probably right.

Why the inaction? Is it possible that it's more valuable for the West to posture about the government in Khartoum than to actually contribute to stopping the genocide? Some answers are below.

Other Sides to Darfur?

Darfur is one of the things that all well-meaning people seem to agree on. A fundamentalist Arab government is waging genocidal war on helpless African, Christian victims. Well, not everyone agrees:

"[Some] see the Darfur conflict as merely the latest campaign to overthrow an Islamist government by any means necessary, where the necessary means, in the case of Darfur, might be described as a conspiracy to wage war on Sudan by using "peacekeeping" or "humanitarianism" as policy instruments in combination with international threats of military action." writes Keith Harmon Snow.