Why Not Darfur?

I have ignored Darfur until now. It has been a story about a place far away that holds little natural interest to me. The horrors have seemed both repetitive and endlesn, with no clear solution.

Nicholas Kristof's column in today's New York Times (registration required) brings home how facile these attitudes have been. He writes about an American witness to what has gone on. A village of 25,000 destroyed. Babies shot. Children smashed with rifle butts. The totality of the crimes committed is reminiscent of Rwanda, Cambodia, Srebrenica. There, as in Darfur, the world did little or nothing.

Of course there are things we can do, but have not yet done. The United States is providing humanitarian aid. As Kristof says, we are managing the genocide. But we are not ending it. Perhaps it is not for us, Americans, to provide the troops needed to end this madness. But the terms of the Darfur Accountability Act, which will soon be introduced by Senators Jon Corzine and Sam Brownback, may point to things that we can do (the statements on Darfur by Corzine , Brownback, and Frank Wolf provide suggestions). Whether the terms of the bill can be effective remains to be seen, even if it is passed. All three members of Congress look to the United Nations, especially Kofi Annan and the Security Council for action. The opposition of members of the Security Council make the UN a weak reed at best. But surely direct support of the African Union is a place to start, and useful in other respects as well.

In any case, something will be done. If we don't start to act, the Janjaweed won't stop.