Hello? Freedom-spreaders, Liberty-givers, Sanctity of Lifers?? There's GENOCIDE going on...

[Sparkly]

Among the ironies, frustrations, hypocrisies, wastes and tragedies of the Iraq fiasco is that it seems to obscure any focus on Darfur. It's like, "Sorry, we're busy helping Iraq grow their young democracy, and it's not toilet-trained yet." Supposedly our armed forces are intended to "fight and win wars" rather than "nation-build," so we start wars but avoid battling on humanitarian grounds. It's too easy to look the other way, and it's beyond sickening.

Genocide by Attrition in Sudan

By Eric Reeves
Sunday, April 6, 2008; Page B07

Sudan's National Islamic Front regime has begun its sixth year of genocidal counterinsurgency warfare in the vast western region of Darfur, targeting African civilian populations perceived as the primary support for fractious rebel groups. Given the length of the conflict, news reports have inevitably taken on a grimly familiar and repetitive character that obscures the impending cataclysm of human destruction.

Without significant improvement in security on the ground -- for civilians and the humanitarians upon whom they increasingly depend -- deaths in the coming months will reach a staggering total. What Khartoum was unable to accomplish with the massive violence of 2003-04, entailing wholesale destruction of African villages, will be achieved through a "genocide by attrition." Civilians displaced into camps or surviving precariously in rural areas will face unprecedented shortfalls in humanitarian assistance, primarily food and potable water.

A recent U.N. map indicating aid access throughout Darfur shows that a large majority of people in the region are in areas with highly limited humanitarian access or none at all. The consensus among nongovernmental aid organizations is that they have access to only 40 percent of the population in need; 2.5 million of the 4.3 million Darfuris affected by conflict -- primarily women and children -- can't be securely reached by those attempting to provide food, clean water, shelter and primary medical care.

And things are poised to get much worse.

(snip)

The international community has waited far too long to come to terms with the brutal motives behind Khartoum's simultaneous blocking of a U.N.-authorized protection force and its unconstrained harassment of humanitarian operations. Nothing short of the most urgent deployment of security forces will allow food to be moved into areas of greatest need. And nothing less than an equally urgent commitment to protect aid operations will permit an expanded humanitarian reach in the critical three months before the start of the rainy season. If Khartoum is not confronted over its deadly policies of fostering insecurity while obstructing humanitarian operations, then we may measure the consequences in hundreds of thousands of lives lost. The choice is before us now.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/04/AR2008040403087.html

Oh, but Saddam Freakin' Hussein was the most evil force on the planet!! :mad:

[Quantess]

1. But, but... obviously Bush knows what he's doing.

He's a Christian, and he wants FREEDOM just like every other true American.
I feel bad for those people in Darfur, but God wants our troops in Iraq! Maybe the best way to help the people of Darfur is to pray for them.

[mcctatas]

2. Silly...

you don't spread freedom where there are only brown people and no oil! (Not to mention the fact that we have no troops left to send)

[Sparkly]

3. A site for evaluating your representatives!

Provided by babylonsister in another thread:

http://www.darfurscores.org/

(Note that Obama and Clinton both get A's, and McCain gets a C. But I can't find a statement on Darfur on Clinton's or McCain's campaign sites, only Obama's.)

[Hannah Bell]

4. A Tale of Two Genocides, Congo and Darfur: The Blatantly Inconsistent U.S. Position

As many as five million people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A quarter million or so have perished in Darfur, western Sudan.

Both are abominations, genocides, crimes against humanity, but only Darfur rates coverage in the U.S. corporate media, action by the United States on the diplomatic and military front, or concerted interest by the Congressional Black Caucus. The Congolese genocide, triggered directly by the U.S. and its surrogates, is masked in silence.

In Darfur, "Arabs" who are indistinguishable from their Black African Muslim neighbors are demonized as enemies in the "clash of civilizations."


http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?Itemid=37&id=284&option=com_content&task=view

[applegrove]

5. Glad Darfur is in the news again.