Max Boot : Where Are the Antiwar Activists on Darfur?

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | April 19, 2005 | Max Boot

[quidnunc]

To anyone who didn't know better, it might seem that the world is finally getting serious about stopping the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, which over the past two years has claimed at least 300,000 lives and displaced at least 2 million people.

After months of huffing and puffing, the UN Security Council finally agreed to freeze the assets of war-crimes suspects, impose a travel ban on them, and refer them for trial to the International Criminal Court. The latter resolution was the subject of tortuous negotiations between the Bush administration, which loathes the ICC (even though it hasn't done anything wrong yet), and other Security Council members who argued, correctly, that an ICC proceeding would be the most expeditious way to get the gears of justice turning. The Security Council deserves kudos for putting its ideological differences aside in this case.

But, important as the war crimes resolution is, who will deliver the bad guys to court? Not the Sudanese government, which is in cahoots with the Arab Janjaweed militia committing atrocities against blacks in Darfur, who happen to be fellow Muslims. The Islamist regime in Khartoum, led by Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, is one of the most loathsome on Earth. It has been responsible for mass murder not only in western Sudan but in the south, where victims have been black Christians and animists. The Security Council voted to send 10,700 peacekeepers to southern Sudan, but even if they're competent (history suggests otherwise), who will bring peace to Darfur in the west? At the moment, there are just 2,000 lightly armed peacekeepers from the African Union covering all of Darfur, a region the size of France. And they have no authority to stop rape, pillage, or murder; they're only supposed to monitor a meaningless cease-fire proclaimed last year between Khartoum and two rebel groups.

-snip-

[Steely Tom]

Where are the antiwar activists on Darfur?

Uhhh. Let me guess. Over in Iraq, protesting the blowing up of Iraqi civilians, and the coalition forces trying to protect them, by insurgent terrorists?

(steely)

[yooling]

They're in secret meetings pouring over documents to figure out how they can blame the whole mess on the Jews and the U.S.

[ken21]

that's a laugh, isn't it?

[Marauder]

Where are the antiwar activists

Here's one ...

[citizencon]

The anti-war activists don't care about the genocide in Darfur so long as the Bush administration is not involved. In fact, they're not anti-war, they're just anti-Bush using Iraq as a pretext to destroy the President. Besides, to them Darfur is not "prime-time".

[Free and Armed]

"Besides, to them Darfur is not "prime-time".

Sadly, you're right. They aren't concerned about justice, only about emotional masturbation and feeling holier than thou.

[Cleburne]

Oh, there were 'anti-war' people out: the Sudanese government- I kid not- had some sort of demonstration or conference in Khartoum not long back asking the West to 'Give Peace a Chance'. Read this article for some more 'peace protesters' talking about all the happy people in the happy little refugee camps and other nonsense: http://inquirer.stanford.edu/Fall2004/vdlt/Darfur.html.