Posted by elektratig [ 64.12.116.65 ] on November 20, 2004 at 13:51:29:
In Reply to: Re: Africa posted by manualblock on November 20, 2004 at 09:14:09:
MB,
I'm not sure what to make of your post.
1. The House passed the resolution by 422-0 and the Senate by unanimous voice vote. I'm not sure who "lobbied" for the resolution, but it does not appear that support was limited to specific interest groups. What is "the Jewish lobby" anyway?
2. As far as I'm aware, after completing a review of the situation Powell concluded that genocide was occuring and the President promptly endorsed his conclusion as that of the Administration. I have no idea what you mean when you say that the President "refused to allow Mr. Powell to do his job."
3. At all events, even assuming the Administration was somehow pressured into declaring genocide when it would have preferred not to (which seems to be what you are suggesting?), the willingness of this administration to make the declaration stands in stark contrast to the shameful performance of the Clinton administration with respect to Rwanda. In that case, the administration (a) went through embarrasing contortions to avoid declaring "genocide", and (b) encouraged the UN (which admittedly needed little or no encouraging)to avoid taking any action, even though there was a peacekeeping force on the ground that, according to its commander, could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
4. Frankly, I would be perfectly happy if the US warned Sudan tomorrow that, if the acts of genocide did not stop in, say, two weeks or a month, the Sudanese government would be taken out with cruise missles. However, the "international community" and the dailykos crowd would doubtless erupt with angry denunciations that the war-mad US was unilaterally attacking a Muslim country. My heart goes out to the residents of Darfur, but I fear that their only recourse is to the UN and the international community, which will not act.
5. At least we agree that Kofi Annan should resign, although I (as you might suspect) believe that the problems in the UN run far deeper.
On Rwanda, see Philip Gourevich, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families -- a horrifying and excellent book.
e
[ Dungeon Forum ] [ Help ]