20
Nov
2006
1 Comment
Thank You Guys
Hey people, I just wanted to give you all my sincere thanks for your great support. When I posted the previous article, I got so depressed and felt so helpless. I don’t feel like that anymore. You’re a very inspiring and motivating bunch indeed. I don’t plan on saving the world and I don’t think you do either but I’ll sure do everything I can at the moment. Jordan, Yael, our beloved Esra’a and last but most defintely not least, the one and only Sankar without whom a lot wouldn’t be possible, I say thanks. Let’s get this started. By the end of the day I’ll have finished adding more contents. There’s a lot about this conflict that’s badly misunderstood and I hope you’ll be able to learn something. Peace!
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Again, Darfur, New York Times No. 1 Columnist Nicholas Kristof’s newest Opinion article
The genocide that started in Darfur in 2003 is now threatening to topple the governments of Chad and the Central African Republic. If these two countries collapse into chaos and civil war for years to come, then neighboring countries like Cameroon and Niger will be threatened as well — and the death toll triggered by the Darfur genocide will eventually number in the millions.
None of this was — or is — inevitable. In late 2003 and early 2004, some Republican appointees in the Bush administration (particularly in the Agency for International Development) were among the first to push for a government response to the slaughter in Darfur, but the White House wasn’t interested.
Then in 2004, Colin Powell boldly used the “genocide†label to describe Darfur, over initial Pentagon and White House objections, and several of his aides drafted a set of policy options to confront the genocide. Those included pushing the French to use fighter aircraft from their base in Chad to intimidate the janjaweed, pushing Egypt to be more involved, recruiting peacekeeping troops from Pakistan and Bangladesh, and generally using American diplomatic muscle to push harder for a solution.
None of those things happened, partly because of reluctance from the White House and Pentagon, and partly because of resistance from France and other countries. So the genocide in Darfur has steadily expanded.”
I am going to get my students started on this tomorrow.