The previous conflict in Sudan (ending in 2005 with a peace treaty) was primarily between Christian and Animist forces in the south and the Muslim north. More than 2 million Christians and non-Muslims were enslaved, raped, tortured and murdered from 1983 to 2005.
Osama bin Laden and his followers had used Sudan as a base at one point also, beginning in 1991.
To this point today, more than 4 million southern Sudanese have been displaced, many to other nearby countries. They barely survive and those that do are in the worst of conditions.
Today, the death-dealing is primarily between the black Sudanese Muslims of Darfur and the Arab Muslims (Janjaweed militia) from the north. The typical Arab Muslim in Sudan considers himself superior to the black, and this is not an uncommon belief throughout the Arab Muslim world, and hardly a new one. It is an ancient racism going back to the first incarnations of Muslims in the Middle East and the Arab Animists predating those.
So what is this genocide really?
It is jihad inspired by racism, in-turn inspired by political ambition. The government of Sudan is supporting the genocide and slavery and arming the Janjaweed. It is the very same method used against the non-Muslims, and the world stood back and barely lifted a finger to aid Sudan then, and hasn't made a move yet on the current atrocities. But international pressure is mounting.
Why now? U.S. Democratic representatives are making more noise. Even President Bush has voiced more concern. But should we step in to the breach in a fight between Muslims again? Have we learned nothing from our stays in Iraq and Afghanistan?
It is my firm belief that the United States should stay out of North African affairs and put this into the hands of the United Nations member states to do something -- for once. This is not our responsibility.
And the UN remains impotent in rendering a solution to this conflict in Darfur because so many of the Muslim members of the UN simply do not care or are profiting from the carnage or believe firmly in the jihad. Again, the problems of the international community seem to lie more with the apathy and ambitions of the Muslim Middle Eastern states than with much else in the world. And once again, the UN is going to ask the United States to step in and spend blood and treasure to fix the problem?
The answer from Congress and President Bush should be clear enough: NO.