A US plan for Darfur - Wesley Clark and John Prendergast

[Mass]

Great to see that good men like Clark are not forgetting this important issue and are proposing solution to help solve this tragic crisis.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/04/10/a_us_plan_for_darfur/

ONCE AGAIN, the drumbeat is intensifying for stronger action to end the untold human suffering in Darfur, Sudan.

...

For nearly three years, President Bush has watched from the sidelines while senior officials in his administration have searched for solutions to the catastrophe in Darfur. So the president took a lot of people by surprise -- especially members of his own foreign policy team -- when he recently called for NATO to help protect civilians and stabilize the security situation there. But Bush's unscripted remarks on Darfur are consistent with his erratically implied policy of siding with oppressed people against their oppressors.

His administration has yet to form a united front on Darfur because of competing interests at the State Department, the Pentagon, and the CIA. Bush needs to pull together these disparate players and create a real policy to end atrocities, punish human rights violators, and create sustainable peace.

...

While Bush did call for NATO to oversee a UN peacekeeping mission, the African Union buckled to pressure from Khartoum to delay any sort of UN transition until at least October. Meanwhile the people of Darfur continue to wait, and the security situation along the Chad-Sudan border is deteriorating into a regional conflagration with grave humanitarian implications. Bush needs to ensure an accelerated AU handover to the UN and identify a capable nation to lead a UN-mandated stabilization force to immediately buttress the AU's civilian protection efforts and help secure the border.


The CIA also will have concerns, though for different reasons. Since Sept. 11, 2001, Sudanese military intelligence officials have cooperated to some degree with the United States on counterterrorism. No doubt, they had their reasons for doing so. In fact, these same officials -- notably the head of military intelligence and friend of the CIA, Salah Abdullah Gosh -- have orchestrated a terror campaign against civilians in Darfur. The Bush administration has called this organized slaughter genocide.

...

President Bush has opened the door for stronger US action in Darfur. Now it's time for him to follow through by leading a focused diplomatic and military effort to end the crisis.

[Adelante]

1. I really thought the AU had enough

And was ready to face the reality of that regime. Very disappointing. Somehow we, the world community, have to get the politics out of fighting genocide or it will never be stopped.

[Mass]

2. kick

[FrenchieCat]

3. Bush is too busy destroying the world to know where we could do

some real good.

Odd (actually, not at all) that Bush would move in such slow motion in reference to Darfur....yet we jumped into Iraq within a deceptive moments notice. :eyes:

[BootinUp]

4. Another reason Bush will go down as one of the worst

Presidents of all time.