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Darfur: Crusade of Hypocrisy
by Daniel G. Jennings
Jdangjenn@aol.com

Attribute to The Libertarian Enterprise

The American Left loves a crusade, provided the crusade doesn't involve any real risks, and the latest fashionable crusade is Darfur—a region of the Sudan where Islamic thugs backed by that African nation's government are terrorizing and allegedly committing genocide against poor Christian farmers.

Leftists led by George Clooney are demanding that the US government "do something about the tragedy in Darfur," but they don't say what the US government should do. I imagine Clooney's answer would be the deployment of US military forces to Darfar under the banner of the UN,—in other words peacekeeping. Note that hasn't worked in other parts of the world ask the people of Rwanda. UN Peacekeeping rules would probably prevent US forces from doing anything but stand around and watch while Moslem thugs kept up the reign of terror. Or perhaps we could resort to sanctions which have worked well against Fidel Castro, he's still in power after forty seven years of sanctions, and worked great against Saddam, we needed a war to get rid of him.

The latest recruit to the great Darfur crusade is Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, who wants the use of US air power on behalf of Darfur's people. Since the thugs in Darfur are low tech tribesmen who ride camels and use rifles I don't see how air power could help. Our planes could use Sudan's air force for target practice and we could bomb the Sudanese capitol in Khartoum but other than making America into a high tech bully I don't see what that could prove. The killing would probably still go on in Darfur and get worse even though our tax dollars would be wasted.

Yes, we could deploy US military forces to Darfur at great cost and probably have to bully the Sudanese government and its neighbors into allowing that. Our military could stay for a few months or weeks until the American people got sick of the debacle then pull out and go home. The Sudanese thugs would come back and start the slaughter again as happened in Somalia—remember that crusade? Maybe we should take up a collection to buy George Clooney and John Edwards DVDs of "Blackhawk Down" and the 1966 movie "Khartoum" to remind them what we're getting into.

The Darfur Crusade is made more hypocritical by the fact that the leading champions of Darfur are opposed to the American adventure in Iraq. Clooney and company oppose unsuccessful American efforts to protect Iraqis from Islamic terrorism but demand American action to protect Sudanese from Islamic terror. They also demand an American withdrawal from Iraq, something that could very well lead to genocide in that country. From a moral standpoint, there is no way one can demand action in Darfur while opposing action in Iraq.

Nor is Darfur the only place where genocide is occurring in our world, what about North Korea where hundreds of thousands of people are starving to death in Kim Jong Il's gulag why not shut it down? The destruction of Kim's sorry Communist Army would be an easy exercise for our modern military and North Korea could be turned over to democratic South Korea for administration. How about it George, what about North Korean peasants aren't they worth your time? Notice we don't hear Mr. Clooney talking about the poor children of North Korea. Some reporter should ask Clooney are the African children of Darfur more important than the Asian children of North Korea?

Perhaps the worst part of the Darfur Hypocrisy is the fact that we could easily and cheaply help the people of Darfur defend themselves. We could arm the Darfur Christians with surplus US weapons and hire a few mercenaries to train them. This is a very viable option, Christianity Today reports that Darfur rebels inflicted defeats upon Sudanese forces last year. Given a little training and some weapons say Stinger missiles to shoot down the Sudanese choppers, Darfur could defend itself easily, that strategy worked in Bosnia in the 1990s where the civil war ended when American agents armed and trained Moslem forces who defeated the Serbs. We could send the CIA into train and arm the Darfur rebels, but oops Mr. Clooney doesn't believe in the CIA so we can't do that.

Of course, we don't even need to call upon the CIA's services or the American taxpayer's help, Mr. Clooney could use part of the huge fortune he has accumulated making movies to buy weapons for the Darfur rebels. He could even hire a private mercenary outfit like Black Water to train and organize the Darfur Christians into a proper fighting force to drive out the Islamic thugs. How about it George? Put your money where your mouth is sell that pleasure palace in Northern Italy and use the proceeds of the sale—or your cut of the gross from "Oceans' 13"—to pay for weapons and training for Darfur's freedom fighters? Ask your Hollywood friends to do the same, organize a benefit concert to buy guns for Darfur? Why do I have feeling we'll get nothing but silence from Mr. Clooney and his publicists on these proposals which could really help the people of Darfur.

The Darfur Crusade is nothing but hot air, it won't save a single Christian from Islamic thugs but it will make a lot of the armchair generals on the left feel good.

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