It is easy for the United States to hide moral failures behind comforting clichés. We say ‘never again’ will we sit idly by while the crime of genocide is committed. But we hesitated in Bosnia and sat out Rwanda. Now, after three years of genocide in Darfur, the United States—once the moral leader of the world—hopes that someone, anyone, will deal with the crisis but us. Under mounting pressure from student activists, human rights advocates, and members of the diplomatic community, the U.S. is grudgingly moving to intervene. It is the moral duty of every member of the Georgetown community to support and accelerate this effort.
Well over 300,000 people have died in this genocide. Well over 2 million have fled before the onslaught of the janjaweed, the Arab militias armed and directed by the Sudanese government perpetrating this crime against humanity. As many as 5,000 more people die every month, while calls from members of the world community for the government in Khartoum to reign in the terror are ignored. To add insult to injury, Osama bin-Laden released a statement against international intervention there.
This week, the U.S. is preparing to support a resolution in the U.N. Security Council sanctioning four Sudanese war criminals; it is expected to be blocked by China and Russia (a previous resolution generally condemning human rights violations featured abstentions from China, Russia and the Islamic countries on the council). China and Russia buy oil from the Sudanese regime, and China supplies it with weapons as well as protection from Security Council sanctions. Meanwhile, Sudan has refused to consent to a larger and better-funded U.N. peacekeeping force to operate in its country. Currently, there are 7,000 under-funded African Union peacekeeping troops in an area the size of France without any kind of air support.
Bush has been willing to upset the international order to disrupt the status quo of Iraq; he ought to disrupt it now. Only the United States, with our political, logistical and financial support, can move outside the U.N. and marshall the NATO peacekeeping force required to halt the genocide in Darfur, employing our own troops if necessary. Though our ability to intervene has been depleted by our Iraq entanglement, Bush would do well to remember that his legacy, domestically and internationally, is in shambles. Stopping this modern genocide would repair it immeasurably.
On Sunday, there will be a rally at the National Mall urging our government to support a peacekeeping force in Darfur. Go. In the past, The Voice has criticized the incoherency of lefty protest rallies. Hopefully, without anti-Bush or anti-War in Iraq distractions, we can make our message clear: not the comfortable ‘never again,’ but the slogan of our committed student activists: Take action—Now.
