Here's an interesting rant by an op ed writer in the NY Post about those who lament over Darfur on the world stage - and then do nothing about it. AND SEE FURTHER UPDATE BELOW
THE DAMNED OF DARFUR By RALPH PETERS - New York Post Online Edition: Seven
Welcome to the triumph of global hypocrisy.
Europe wrings its hands - as Europe always does - but declines an invitation to the dance. After all, "responsible" governments can't play fast and loose with another state's sovereignty. No dictator or president-for-life would be able to get a decent night's sleep.
So Sudan's Islamo-fascists continue to kill with impunity.
Our own left mourns theatrically for Darfur's dead - but no one has formed a new Lincoln Brigade to take on Sudan's Muslims fanatics. And the uncomfortable fact that Arab Muslims are slaughtering black Muslims goes ignored. It doesn't fit the left's comfortable worldview. ...
... Now the global intelligentsia is getting yet another lesson in what happens when the United States and its fellow English-speaking democracies are otherwise engaged: When the "Great Satan" doesn't act, the killing continues.
UPDATE to UPDATE - This from Christianity Today magazine website, an excellent article:
Does Darfur Have a Prayer? | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction
International aid agencies, many of them faith-based, have made strong headway this year in providing emergency relief to 3.7 million out of 6 million Darfurians. Still, some 13 percent of the children are malnourished, slightly below the 15 percent that is considered the threshold for a famine emergency.
Natsios' mandate is to get a U.N. force of 23,000, as outlined in a September U.N. resolution, into Darfur to protect civilians, since the existing African Union force has been too weak to stop the violence. Natsios said Sudan, as an alternative, could allow the African Union force to be increased and to be "blue-helmeted" as U.N. peacekeepers. Natsios told Christianity Today, "From my perspective, [the alternative] would be an ideal option. At this point, the Sudanese government doesn't agree to this. I think we can change their mind." Right now, there are 7,000 lightly armed African Union troops in Darfur. But only a few A.U. troops intervene outside the 100-plus refugee camps, and they are scheduled to withdraw December 31.
Sudan's president, Omar al Bashir, shows few signs of changing his opposition to U.N. troops. Recently, Sudan kicked out U.N. envoy Jan Pronk, and President Bashir refused to meet with Natsios in October. He also publicly criticized aid groups and the news media for conspiring against his government. Regarding the role of outsiders in Darfur, Bashir told the British Guardian newspaper, "We have no objection to the African Union increasing its troops, strengthening its mandate, or receiving logistical support" from the Arab League, the European Union, or the U.N. He said he would allow a force of up to 17,000.
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