Darfur News Goes From Bad To Worse

While the news that Sudan is expelling the UN envoy for revealing losses the army sustained in Darfur is bad, the second story linked below is receiving less attention but is profoundly more troubling.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 22 — Sudan’s government ordered the chief United Nations envoy out of the country today, saying he was an enemy of the country and its armed forces.

World News

Sudan is massing its troops for a decisive strike on the strife-torn province of Darfur.

Thousands of civilians are victims of a Government campaign to seize military dominance before a United Nations force can be mustered to intervene.

Antonov cargo planes carrying bombs are back in the air over the villages of Darfur, just as they were during the initial pogroms that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced more than two million.

When they reach their targets, soldiers lower the ramps and kick out the bombs — which look like munitions used in World War II — to explode on those below.

Comments

[Purple Avenger]

Via whatever means necessary, we should make sure the rebels are delivered a few hundred stingers.

[Phoenix]

I'm with you, PA.....

[brent]

This is terrible news for Danfur but the US needs to stay out of this conflict at all cost. Danfur needs to step up and overthrow their government. I know they dont have much of a chance but they do have a chance. The US is being blamed for all other countries in the world hating us for sticking our noses in other countries affairs. Look at us right now. President Bush is saying we are liberating the people of Iraq and every country is against us except a few and literally all liberal democrats in this country say we should not be there. I think it is funny that the same liberal democrats are saying we need to do something in Danfur but we should just let the Iraqi people continue to get slaughtered. My cousins are in Iraq and it is hell but they understand their mission. They are trying to protect against future terrorism and also save some Iraqi people but the liberals are calling them war crimiinals. What would happen if we went to Danfur and wiped out their government and there country got torn into seperate warlord sects. We are the biggest but someone will get tired of the US sticking our noses out everything a country needs help. There are many other counties like France, Germany, and others who could help Danfur but where are they. BTW what is the UN for if they cant protect some weak country from Warlord. I am sick of seeing people like Bono talk about Africa and the Sundan while he bashes President Bush at any chance. Lets let someone else take care of Danfur because America is stretch pertty thin at this time. If we go in there we are going to get jumped on by every big country and we will be they next France or worse. Brent

[mrskrass]

Brent, I think you are wrong. If the US government would do what you suggest, it would only prove to the more critical countries that they are right. That the US only step into conflicts in other countries (or create conflicts, like in Iraq) if there is something to be gained, like oil.

I think the whole world, including the US, should do the right thing and stop this genocide in Darfur. Because that's what it is: genocide!!!

[Phoenix]

Darfur is a humanitarian issue at this point. All geopolitics should be set aside in this instance.

[Purple Avenger]

Darfur is a humanitarian issue at this point. All geopolitics should be set aside in this instance.

Darfur isn't a humanitarian issue in the usual sense, because the whole thing is about O.I.L.. This is why the French and Chinese have been notably unhelpful(indeed obstructionist) in the U.N.

http://purpleavenger.blogspot.com/2005/10/darfur-explained-real-story.html

The US media has been totally negligent in reporting this critical aspect of the story.

[basils]

PA and Phoenix, why don't you join the military then.

[brent]

mrskrass I am still surprised liberals are still saying the war in Iraq was about oil. Have you filled up your gas tank lately. If we went in to steal the oil why the hell are we spending more than ever for it. I wish you were right. I think we should have got oil from all the trouble we have seen there. Maybe free gas could make up for having to use billions of dollars shooting the high tech weapons to keep terrorism down. The next time a liberal says something about going into Iraq for oil someone needs to slap them and ask where they buy gas.

[Phoenix]

When hundreds of thousands of innocent people are killed at the whim of slimey governments, it's genocide. The 'whole' thing can't be about oil as it's Muslim against Christian, and the Muslims run the governments. As well, what do a million poor farmers have to do with the oil industry? The media has been totally negligent in reporting *any* and *all* aspects of this story - and all the other horrid stories that plague Africa.

Basil - The military doesn't want me because I'm a chick and I don't have any arms or legs. I'm a paperweight.

[Purple Avenger]

"PA and Phoenix, why don't you join the military then."

Been there, done that -- when Carter was president.

[Purple Avenger]

"what do a million poor farmers have to do with the oil industry?"

They've been living on the land for thousands of years the oil sits under. Naturally, they feel they are more entitled to it than the Muslim government in khartoum is. The Garang/White Nile deal would have given them a stake in it. The 20 year old (abandoned) Total deal doesn't.

For the French to reactivate their $200,000,000,000 deal, those people have to be forced off the land or the same oil field "troubles" that occured 20 years ago will happen again.

Some people will tolerate a lot of bodies for $200B. A. LOT. OF. BODIES.

[Phoenix]

Okay, PA. The facts still don't justify the horror. Thousands of years of sitting on something vs. twenty years of a flawed deal does not dissemble the plight of starving people who would rather have bread than a 1/1,000,000 stake in an oil well. oh ugh..... What about Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Somalia, and the chronic internecine battles that have raged since forever? It's not all about oil.. How about Saran-wrapping the continent and ignoring it for a decade. Sounds like a solution of survival of the fittest - or to be more blunt - START OVER.

[Purple Avenger]

"What about Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Somalia, and the chronic internecine battles that have raged since forever?"

Backlash of a phony and retarded colonial Belgian eugenics idiocy in the case of Rwanda. The rest are more or less ordinary thuggish african kleptocratic stuff.

I'm having a hard time understanding why you think a region, that was at relative peace for prior decades, suddenly erupts right about the time John Garand disavows the French deal and signs with White Nile...yet you claim its not all about oil. Prior to the oil find, there was nothing in the Darfur for the coastal Islamics to give a damn about, and they didn't.

Explain this to me. I'm not going to accept "coincidence" as an answer. When there's a $200,000,000,000 deal on the line there ain't no such thing as coincidince. The French will queer a situation for a whole lot less than that.

[mrskrass]

Brent, what makes you think I'm a liberal?

[Phoenix]

PA,

I'm not disclaiming it's about oil. I just said there is so much more to it than just oil. And you speak of one region when there are so many others. Genocide is genocide. I guess we could debate forever about the 'why's', but I'm not interested. The problem needs to be fixed, not deconstructed except to the extent whoever fixes it, fixes the ultimate source - and as far as I'm concerned, oil is not the primary source.... for instance, the 'more or less ordinary thuggish African keptocratic stuff'..... gee.... You countered your own point.

[brent]

mrskrass sorry to offend you, but when people say the Iraq conflict was due to oil, it is usuallly a liberal.

[ajacksonian]

Want something done in Darfur? Take the high road and band together and do it yourself ( http://ajacksonian.blogspot.com/2006/05/note-to-those-wanting-something-done.html ). The Nation is busy and if you can tackle the overseas problems on your lonesome, then go for it! Train up! Or hire mercenaries if you quaver at the thought of being in a godforsaken land, fighting terrorists of various stripes and, generally, not having a direction to go in. Tell the Nation and you will probably get donations! I will chip in a few bucks and the entire works of Orwell... or just a few copies of "Homage to Catalonia", which should be required reading for this sort of thing.

The Foreign Policy would sanction it, Congress could write out nice Letters of Marque and Reprisal and off you go! Think stopping such things is *easy* and that the US should step in *everywhere* things go to pot? We have a limited Federal Government and Armed Forces for a *reason*. Because if enough folks want something done and can't convince the Nation of it, but it looks like the *right* thing to do, then you can go DO IT. To many cheers and wavings of flags! Show us where your heart *really* is, or your money. Fight the good fight and feel proud for doing so...

Of course being the *right* thing to do is not the same as the *smart* or *wise* thing, but that is up for individuals to decide.

Hot for Darfur?

Do it yourself.

And quit moaning. The griping helps no one and the doing of the job to get it done is good for the soul, if not the body. We are *not* the world's policeman. If you want to get a few of your friends and be patrol officers in Darfur for peace, then good for you! And I *mean* that, sincerely. That is HOW this Nation was built and learned to stand ABOVE other Nations: by having committed citizens willing to risk everything to do the right thing.

[Purple Avenger]

"I just said there is so much more to it than just oil."

All of the other stuff wouldn't be happening were it not for the oil. Its the reason why France and China are being obstructionist in the UN. Its the reason why the Janjaweed are trying to force the people off the land.

You confuse symptoms with the disease.