Darfur
Posted by ReactionaryEnd the Genocide in Darfur!
We’ve all heard that, and we would all like for it to stop. According to Danny at Doc’s Political Parlor (one of my favorite web sites), Howard Dean says it is an issue that Democrats can use to appeal to young Evangelicals. But… is it our job? I think so… What can the US do about it? And which party is more serious about ending the genocide? Hint: ‘Just Words’ don’t work with murderous dictators…
First some background: Darfur (Dar al-Fur) is ‘the land of the Fur tribe’, it is a western region of Sudan, which is the largest country in Africa (920,000 square miles - 3 1/2 times bigger than Texas). Sudan’s 40 million people have been ruled since 1993 by Omar al-Bashir (a murderous dictator). Sudan gained its independence from Egypt / UK in 1956. It has disputed borders with Kenya and Ethiopia and Egypt.
Sudan also has lots of oil (400,000 barrels a day) - 70% of which is sold to China (10% of China’s oil comes from Sudan). The Chinese sell military equipment to Sudan and train the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army. China has hundreds of ‘peacekeeping’ troops in Sudan.
The Darfur genocide is hard to quantify, but about 200,000 people have been killed according to many estimates, plus thousands of people have been displaced. The Sudanese Government and associated militias (Janjaweed) are condemned for the genocide. Slavery, human trafficking, and rape are fairly common.
There are 20,000 international peacekeepers in Sudan (UN / African Union Mission in Darfur - UNAMID).
Pretty nasty place - I can see why we all want that to stop. But how can Darfur be an issue for Democrats? After all, Saddam Hussein (a murderous dictator) killed as many people in ONE YEAR (1991 - 100,000 Kurds and 130,000 Shia) as have died in Darfur. In 1988, Saddam killed 50,000 Kurds using Weapons of Mass Destruction such as Sarin and Mustard Gas. Barack Obama opposed the War in Iraq…
Barack Obama says that “increasing pressure on the Sudanese” and “deployment of a robust international force” will end the genocide.
John McCain goes further. In 2006, McCain and Bob Dole published a plan to end the genocide. McCain called for NATO (US) to enforce a ‘No Fly Zone’ over Darfur and “push the United Nations to draw up firm plans for the entrance of a robust force into Darfur and contingency plans for the force to enter without Sudanese consent”, with US logistical, intelligence, and diplomatic support.
Compare the two plans: which one has a better chance of stopping a murderous dictator intent on killing his own people? Which candidate has recent experience helping bring a murderous dictator to justice - and which one opposed that action?
By the way, ANWR can produce 780,000 barrels of oil per day, almost double that of Sudan.
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September 1st, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I just wonder if the Kurds saw the MADE IN THE USA label on the gas canisters before they died? There are parallels thought, the problem is we are played the part of the Chinese two decades ago and the Kurds reaped the whirlwind.
September 1st, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Smearing the USA? The facts don’t support your lies:
Iraq’s WMD program - ingredients supplied by Singapore, Netherlands, and Egypt; equipment supplied by Germany, France, and Austria; munitions supplied by Italy, Spain, and China.
http://www.iraqwatch.org/suppliers/nyt-041303.gif
September 1st, 2008 at 5:52 pm
The genocide in Southern Sudan (against the Christian majority and others…2 million have died, mostly civilians in a horrible manner! and much more displaced and suffering) has been going on longer and is even more catastrophic (see United States Holocaust Memorial Museum http://www.ushmm.org/conscience/alert/sudan/contents/01-overview/ and PPF ministry http://www.persecutionproject.org/ . However, it is politically acceptable to objectionably defend other Muslims but not the Christian south. At least there is a reason now some are willing to take action. I wish more would be done to prevent the genocide in all of Sudan.
September 1st, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I think Talmadge is referring to Compound 1080, which is manufactured by Tull Chemical Co. right here in AL. The Anniston Star wrote about it recently. As I recall the chemical that was in Iraq had been there for quite some time and was sold under legitimate pretenses. The Iraqi government apparently used it for assassinations and kidnappings, but not for mass killings as I understand it.
September 1st, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Come on Brian, Talmadge implied that the US supplied Saddam with chemical weapons which were used to kill tens of thousands of people. That is a (common) leftist smear.
The US also supplied Saddam with West Nile Virus, for medical research, which could have been misused.
September 1st, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I’m trying to be nice and give him the benefit of the doubt!
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Nice to see you quoting Doc’s - I met Danny in Denver, and he’s a great guy.
I’m proud to say that the Darfur issue is one where the American Jewish community has taken a leadership role and build coalitions with Christian, Muslim, and non-faith groups.
Btw.. Mike….We were involved in this from the beginning, whether it was the Christians in the South or the Muslims.
Genocide is genocide, no matter who’s being killed. I personally don’t see it at a partisan political issue unless one party is actively ignoring it. But, one of the most outspoken critics of the Sudanese government is former GOP presidential candidate, Senator Brownback from Kansas.
He spoke at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism’s conference in DC about his trips to Darfur and clearly highlighted the atrocities that were happening to both Christians and Muslims.
Our family traveled to DC 2 years ago to attend the March for Darfur. Our daughter had “Save Darfur” yarmulkes printed for her bat mitzvah last summer and gave part of her bat mitzvah gift money for refugee relief.
Although I’d like to see robust US involvement in the Darfur situation, with so many of our troops pinned down in Iraq and Afghanistan, I don’t think we have the manpower. This truly is a situation where the world needs to get involved to put pressure both on the Sudanese government and the Chinese government whose oil payments are helping “fuel” the genocide. It’s a situation where we do need allies standing with us.
In this case, I prefer McCain’s solution, but do we have the resolve and resources to implement it?
Sudanese genocide is an issue where all people of all religions can work together. Those don’t come around very often - or at least we don’t pay attention when they do.
Thank you, Brian, for giving it some publicity when we’re all consumed with the US political election.
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Don’t thank me, thank Reactionary. (Note to self: I need to change my template to make the author’s identity more prominent.)
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Yikes! Sorry, Reactionary! Ok… amend my post to say,
Thank you, Reactionary, for giving it some publicity…..
September 2nd, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Countrycat - thanks for the great comment. I am somewhat surprised to find common ground with someone from leftinalabama and I respect your actions.
IMO we have the military resources to implement McCain’s plan, but it would strain US airlift / logistical capacity. The Air Force isn’t all that busy right now and could enforce a no fly zone. I don’t think that NATO would be all that interested in committing troops, but France (Chad) has an interest in settling down the chaos in the region, President Sarkozcy is friendly, so maybe with their help it would work…
Communist China is a big concern. They might have an interest in stability, if it kept their oil facilities safer.
Resolve? Some people want the US to abandon Iraq to chaos. Protestors in St. Paul want us to leave Afghanistan. Almost all of them are from the left. I don’t think they really care about Iraq or Afghanistan as much as they don’t agree with / like the US.
Personally, I think that the US should vow to eliminate slavery from the world and actively go after regimes and groups that practice slavery. There is also an overlap between places where slavery thrives and places where terrorists thrive - two birds, one stone…
September 2nd, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Well, there may be LIA bloggers who think we should leave Afghanistan, but I don’t remember any posting that. As for those in St. Paul advocating that action, well - in my opinion - they’re just wrong. I don’t have any problem criticizing them.
I agree that France probably has the capability and the know how in the region to take action alongside other countries. I’d love to see other nations take a leading role and the US help out as needed. We’re strained right now, and if other countries can take the lead and are willing to do it, that’s great. If not, I think we (the US) should take all action we possibly can to resolve the situation.
Again, this isn’t a partisan issue, IMO… People on the left and right have been really active in building coalitions and working together. The big thing for me is how Jewish and Muslim groups have started dialogues because they both are involved in stopping genocide. That has led to dialogue on other issues - particularly the Middle East.
Really, if we can’t get along living here, in the United States, there really is no hope for peace in the Middle East. Darfur, while a horrible tragedy, has given us an opening in this country to work together with people in all faith communities.
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Countrycat - I read some of your stuff at LIA, you don’t seem to be too unreasonable (IMO many of your comrades are just like ‘Talmadge East’ above).
How would your community react to an US-led invasion of an oil-rich Muslim country full of brown people, who are led by a Socialist dictator who kills ethnic / religious minorities, on the grounds that we are freeing those people from tyranny?
IMO it is a partisan issue, because we know how Democrats would react. Some may support an invasion (if it was popular at the time), but few (if any) would be willing to sustain thousands of US troop deaths over a long messy period. We know this - your party has proved it.
So we remain on the sidelines, kumbaya…
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:20 pm
By “your community” do you mean Jews, Democrats, LIA, or someone else?
I’m not a spokesperson for anyone but myself, so I can’t presume to speak for any other group. But I’m not a pacifist in foreign affairs. In my personal worldview, if you stand by and watch someone get beaten up and/or killed and you could stop it but don’t, then you bear some of the responsibility. I thought we should have gone into the Balkans in the 90’s and kicked Serbian ass long before we did. We had only to look at 2 world wars to know that - for the most part - Europeans weren’t willing to deal with aggression on their borders until the situation was completely out of control.
And I will caution you to not blame Democrats alone for being isolationists and/or unwilling to engage in some conflicts.
Some of the biggest critics I know personally (not the gasbags of both parties on TV) of the war in Iraq are die hard Republicans. And, I do recall GOP leaders criticizing President Clinton when he FINALLY decided to draw the line with the Serbs in the late 90’s.
I continue to believe that genocide is NOT a partisan issue and if we approach it that way, we’ll never come to a consensus of how to deal with it and stop it.
Yawn! time for bed for this cat….
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Countrycat - I’m a big supporter of Israel, and the Bible says be nice to Jews or else
By “your community” I meant LIA or Democrats in general. I know that all Republicans do not support the Iraq War (Ron Paul comes to mind). I also know that his view is a small minority opinion (~5% or so of GOP), based on principled non-intervention in other countries affairs.
I blame Democrats for voting for the War then running against it. Or opposing it and funding it at the same time. Compare party leadership and Presidential candidates: who has shown the resolution necessary to oppose tyranny?
While I think that genocide should not be a partisan issue, I don’t see your side supporting actions necessary to confront it. Just my opinion, thanks for a civil discussion.
FWIW, my opinion of you is changing from “not too unreasonable” to “reasonable”, at least on this issue
September 6th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Countrycat, yes we have been involved diplomatically with Southern Sudan (not sure if it was from the beginning though myself). It seems like there is more support now for action in Sudan now that it is Darfur instead of Southern Sudan…based on media coverage. Better late than never, as long as the problem is fixed…but it can’t happen soon enough.
Thanks for your thoughts and advocacy for this cause!