White House Confirms It: There Will Be An Envoy To Darfur

[babylonsister]

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/hillary-clinton/white-house-confirms-it-there-will-be-a-sudan-envoy/

White House Confirms It: There Will Be An Envoy To Darfur

The White House is confirming that it will appoint a full-time, high-level envoy to Darfur who will report directly to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and to President Obama.

Yesterday evening actor George Clooney left a meeting with Obama and told a reporter that he’d been informed that the White House would be creating such a post. The White House didn’t immediately comment on Clooney’s claims.

But our reporter, Amanda Erickson, just got this statement from White House spokesman Tommy Vietor:

“There will be a Sudan Envoy who will report to the Secretary of State and through the Secretary to the President.”

The move will come as good news to those who were worried that absent such an appointment the Darfur situation could slide off the radar. Clooney said yesterday that appointing an envoy would be a pivotal step in turning the situation around, though there’s still a long, hard slog ahead.

[vadawg]

1. sorry the only envoy who will do any good is the 82nd airbourne

and do we really believe that the US will committ troops to stop the genocide in Darfur. I am afraid it will be window dressing.

[CTyankee]

2. Thank you George Clooney and President Obama!

Magnificently done. A master stroke. After 8 years of neglect we have at least SOME action in diplomacy to reduce the suffering of the people of Darfur.

[AtomicKitten]

3. An envoy is nice but immediate action would be better. n/t

[vaberella]

4. I don't think we have the resources for "immediate action". n/t

[AtomicKitten]

6. True & leadership is a great start, but lives are being lost in the interim. Tick, tock. n/t

[vaberella]

11. It's times like this.... *had to edit*

I wish the UN was more organized,even had the money and resources, had a more developed and equipped "military" in dealing with this sort of problem. I was always the impresion that was their function, but lately it seems most things that get done has to be through US involvement and we're definitely out of the resources, money, and just morale to do any of it. I realize that there is a serious and major problem in Dafur, but we also have a bloody crisis of proportions where our neighborhood food banks are being over run by unemployed people, we are still losing jobs and money. The bankers are living like kings and we are still spending way too much time and money on the "war on terror" in Iraq, Afghanistan, threatening Iran and with N.K. tossing out some threatds; as well as the suffrage of the Palestinians in Gaza. It's a damn nightmare.

[AtomicKitten]

12. Junior has left in his wake a global clusterf*ck of monumental proportions.

Obama will have to invoke his inner wizard to address this mess.

[vaberella]

13. Ain't that the truth...jeez. n/t

[babylonsister]

5. Good luck with that. Who

would you suggest take what kind of action? I think we're stretched too thin. It will be nice if and when that changes.

[AtomicKitten]

7. For a start, Ambasador Susan Rice is a passionate advocate for Darfur.

Genocide isn't something that can remain on the back burner, like Rwanda. The world body will look to President Obama's leadership in concert with the U.N. The "how" part has yet to be determined.

Susan Rice on Darfur: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiJpPs1F0Gw

Ambassador Susan Rice: Darfur is an ongoing genocide.
http://www.undispatch.com/node/7599

In her first press availability Ambassador Susan Rice had this to say about Darfur.

Well, obviously we remain very deeply concerned about the ongoing genocide in Darfur. The priority at this point has to be effective protection for civilians. And in that regard, our effort and attention will be, and as we discussed this morning with the Secretary-General and colleagues, on effective efforts to support the full and complete deployment of UNAMID so that there is the capacity on the ground to begin to effect that civilian protection.

Obviously, we will continue to look at what is necessary to deal with any obstruction, continued violence or reprisals that may occur anyway or may emanate as a result of a potential indictment. And we want to be supportive of the Special Envoy's efforts to negotiate a lasting peace and resolve the underlying political differences.

The previous administration had a disturbing tendency to make claims like this, but then follow up with a lackluster response. Then-Brookings Institution fellow Susan Rice described that policy as "bluster and retreat."

I, for one, look forward to a new day in America's approach to the Darfur crisis. I'm encouraged by the fact that Rice so clearly stated that the genocide was "ongoing" because this implies a sense of urgency on the part of the Obama administration to do something about it. So far, though, it's hard to see how that urgency has been manifest. Within 48 hours the President appointed Richard Holbrooke as a special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan and George Mitchell to the Mid-east. Clearly, these are two top-tier America foreign policy priorities. But if the genocide is really "ongoing" as Ambassador Rice says it is, then it would have been nice to see a similarly high-level international troubleshooter assigned the Sudan portfolio.

[babylonsister]

9. I'm all for diplomacy and hope Ambassador Rice

is involved in resolving and improving the situation in Darfur. I thought you meant warm bodies, as in troops, and I don't see that at this point.

[AtomicKitten]

14. Junior has sufficiently decimated the military rendering the U.S. a paper tiger.

Obama will have to lean on diplomacy and leadership to put a dent in the global clusterf*ck Junior has left in his wake. Still, it is incumbent upon the world body to continue to speak up on Darfur seeking a better outcome than Rwanda.

[EraOfResponsibility]

8. Yessssss!!!

that's great news.

[wyldwolf]

10. Clinton says she will "sound the alarm" on Darfur

Tue Jan 13, 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sen. Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday she would focus on the Darfur crisis as top U.S. diplomat and the Obama administration was looking at options including the creation of no-fly zones.

"There is a great need for us to sound the alarm again about Darfur. It is a terrible humanitarian crisis compounded by a corrupt and very cruel regime in Khartoum," Clinton said at a Senate hearing to confirm her nomination as secretary of state.

She said the incoming Obama administration was reviewing U.S. policy toward Darfur and the UN/African Union force must be fully deployed.

"We have spoken about other options, no-fly zones, other sanctions and sanctuaries, looking to deploy the UN/AU force to try to protect the refugees but also to repel the militias," she said.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/usTopNews/idUKTRE50C6C120090113

When asked about Dafur at a primary debate in July of 2008, here was Clinton's response:

"There are three things we have to do immediately. Move the peacekeepers--that, finally, the United Nations and the African Union have agreed to--into Sudan as soon as possible. In order for them to be effective, there has to be airlift and logistical support, and that can only come either unilaterally from the United States or from NATO... And finally, we should have a no-fly zone over Sudan because the Sudanese governments bomb the villages before and after the Janjiwid come. And we should make it very clear to the government in Khartoum we're putting up a no-fly zone; if they fly into it, we will shoot down their planes. It's the only way to get their attention."

:applause:

[vaberella]

15. But this is the thing. The Alarm has been sounding for 3 years...

nothing can really get done because everyone is ill-equipped and the US is basically bankrupt morally to fight another possible military battle, bankrupt in funding anything else as we're dead in the US fund wise, we have wars being waged in other nations. This is nothing new and people have been talking about this for years upon years. Resources are unfortunately extremely limited and the UN is a failure of the worst proportions.

[Fleshdancer]

16. This is a step in the right direction n/t

[Kdillard]

17. Good step in the right direction :)

[Clio the Leo]

18. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!

That's proof that God listens to Democrats' prayers too! :)