Clark and Prendergast lay out a plan for Darfur

[trillian]

Wes Clark and John Prenergast have an important Op Ed in the Boston Globe today about our failures in Dafur, and what we need to do to help end the suffering.

For nearly three years, President Bush has watched from the sidelines while senior officials in his administration have searched for solutions to the catastrophe in Darfur. So the president took a lot of people by surprise -- especially members of his own foreign policy team -- when he recently called for NATO to help protect civilians and stabilize the security situation there. But Bush's unscripted remarks on Darfur are consistent with his erratically implied policy of siding with oppressed people against their oppressors.

His administration has yet to form a united front on Darfur because of competing interests at the State Department, the Pentagon, and the CIA. Bush needs to pull together these disparate players and create a real policy to end atrocities, punish human rights violators, and create sustainable peace.

Clark and Predergast lay out a plan:

Military planners at the Pentagon need to work closely with this lead nation to plan the mission and provide military assets that enhance the force's ability to respond quickly and aggressively to attacks against civilians. Like many policies, there are countervailing interests and concerns. The US military is heavily committed in Iraq and Afghanistan, but there are still some resources available. A choice must be made to do our part to protect innocent people from tyrannical leaders, ethnic cleansing, and human rights abuses in this part of the world too.

The CIA also will have concerns, though for different reasons. Since Sept. 11, 2001, Sudanese military intelligence officials have cooperated to some degree with the United States on counterterrorism. No doubt, they had their reasons for doing so. In fact, these same officials -- notably the head of military intelligence and friend of the CIA, Salah Abdullah Gosh -- have orchestrated a terror campaign against civilians in Darfur. The Bush administration has called this organized slaughter genocide.

Gosh was Osama bin Laden's handler when the Al Qaeda leader lived in Sudan in the 1990s, and he is no doubt useful. But Gosh is also very likely a war criminal whose policies are responsible for the deaths of thousands of Darfurians.

More details at the Boston Globe

[Ilsa]

1. Thanks for posting this and Kick.

Clark is showing leadership on a number of issues.

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. The sad truth is, most Democratic grass roots activists

are not very interested in what is happening in this part of Black Africa. 8th Graders in New Jersey have done more to end this Genocide than 95% of the active posters at DU:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/2/21/95410/6142

[Sapphire Blue]

3. There is a "Rally To Stop Genocide" scheduled for April 30th in DC...

*** Rally To Stop Genocide - Washington, DC on April 30th, 2006 ***

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x661739

[Sapphire Blue]

10. The Perils of Indifference...

The Perils of Indifference
Elie Wiesel
April 12, 1999

(An excerpt)

In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, one does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response.

Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees -- not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we betray our own.

Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment. And this is one of the most important lessons of this outgoing century's wide-ranging experiments in good and evil.

In the place that I come from, society was composed of three simple categories: the killers, the victims, and the bystanders. During the darkest of times, inside the ghettoes and death camps -- and I'm glad that Mrs. Clinton mentioned that we are now commemorating that event, that period, that we are now in the Days of Remembrance -- but then, we felt abandoned, forgotten. All of us did.

Read the rest & listen to the speech @ http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/wiesel.htm

I wonder if the people of Darfur feel abandoned, forgotten, as Elie Wiesel did those many years ago?

I wonder how many Americans are bystanders as the Darfur genocide continues?

How many are indifferent?

Please, Save Darfur! http://savedarfur.org/home

[mzmolly]

11. The media isn't talking about darfur. Remember Rwanda?

The RW went "pseudo crazy" b/c "Clinton didn't act fast enough (over about a three month period.)" Yet three years of not responding to genocide gets no reaction?

From www.savedarfur.org

Dear President Bush,

During your first year in the White House, you wrote in the margins of a report on the Rwandan genocide, "Not on my watch."

I urge you to live up to those words by using the power of your office to support a stronger multi-national force to protect the civilians of Darfur. http://millionvoicesfordarfur.org/

I just signed the petition, it's the least I could do.

[Sapphire Blue]

12. The media IS talking; are we listening?

**** NBC Covers Genocide ****

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x660802


Be A Witness: http://beawitness.org/splash/

[mzmolly]

13. Wow, only three years later. Again, compare the coverage to Rwanda.

GE owns NBC and profits from any sort of war. However regardless of motive, it's good they are covering this.

Thanks for the link

[Sapphire Blue]

15. There has been periodic coverage over the years...

... but, again, are we listening? Or is 'American Idol' more important? :sarcasm: Seems to draw a much larger audience... and response.

[mzmolly]

18. I don't watch American Idol personally. However, I was making

a comparison to Rwanda. I don't think Darfur gets the kind of coverage it should. I know they cover it loosely, just like they "covered" Bush's war lies before we ventured into Iraq. But, compare the coverage of Bush's bloody venture to Monica Lewinsky.

[Sapphire Blue]

20. Please ask the networks to provide more coverage @

Be A Witness: http://beawitness.org/splash

[Tom Rinaldo]

14. No, most of us aren't listening. There has been some coverage

I may blame the media for the fact that most average Americans aren't paying attention to this tragedy, but it is not an excuse for why more Democratic Activists haven't cared. The facts are out there, Darfur has been covered sufficiently well for us to know all that we need to know. Wes Clark has been one of a handful of leading National Democrats, certainly among a small handful of leading White Democrats, who speaks on this issue regularly. Because of Clark's following on the internet I know that anyone at DU who wanted to pay attention to Darfur has had ample opportunity to do so by now. Clark published a major Op-Ed piece on Darfur in USA today in July of 2004, and in August of 2005 he made a major policy statement about Darfur on National Public Radio.
http://securingamerica.com/taxonomy/term/59

More people have actually been dying inside Darfur than inside Iraq.

[Sapphire Blue]

16. Yes, the facts ARE out there & there has been coverage; do people CARE???

Or do they care more about really important things like American Idol :sarcasm: ?

And right now someone in Darfur is dying. Right now.

Save Darfur: http://www.savedarfur.org/home

[Mass]

4. K&R

Unfortunately, people are focused on partisan issues and forget issues that relate to people.

I posted that this editorial this morning and it got 1 answer. This one gets little more. This is a really disappointing.

[Sapphire Blue]

5. ... and the genocide continues.

[Tom Rinaldo]

6. 8th Grader Emma Ellis wrote:

"It seems ridiculous that in an era where news is transmitted in an instant via the Internet, more people aren't aware of the circumstances in Darfur. I am currently in the eighth grade and didn't learn about it until about two months ago. We had just finished reading Weisel's Holocaust memoir "Night," and I saw the horrifying similarity between the two. All I could ask was: How could the people of today's world allow genocide to happen?...

...There is something everyone can do to help the people of Darfur. My classmates and I are currently writing letters to our congressional leaders, educating our peers, and giving people postcards to sign and send to Washington. We are also going to raise funds to send to Darfur relief organizations."

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk0MDYmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY4ODE0NDcmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXky

[Sapphire Blue]

7. Take action @

http://www.savedarfur.org/action/

[Tom Rinaldo]

9. Thank you for all this information

They are running an excellent operation, and it is very easy to join their efforts, I just did and urge others to also.

[Sapphire Blue]

8. Congressional Lobby Days (4/28 & 5/1)

http://www.savedarfur.org/rally/lobbydays

(Last day to register is April 17th)

[Tom Rinaldo]

17. If you signed this petition, say so here. I did. Link is below:

Also other useful information:
http://www.savedarfur.org/action/

[Sapphire Blue]

19. Done & kick for taking action @ 'Save Darfur' (also 'Be A Witness')

:kick: Save Darfur - Take Action Now: http://www.savedarfur.org/action/

Be A Witness: http://beawitness.org/splash

[FrenchieCat]

21. Action noted....action taken!

It is a shame that even "progressive" communities like this one pay little or no attention to this kind of killing but are up in arms about Iraq.

Oliver North gets more attention at DU than does death of hundreds of thousands via Genocide!

Makes me want to cry! :cry:

[Donna Zen]

22. Interesting:

After reading this excerpt several times (did a bit of a double-take) I find this bit of information very disturbing:

The CIA also will have concerns, though for different reasons. Since Sept. 11, 2001, Sudanese military intelligence officials have cooperated to some degree with the United States on counterterrorism. No doubt, they had their reasons for doing so. In fact, these same officials -- notably the head of military intelligence and friend of the CIA, Salah Abdullah Gosh -- have orchestrated a terror campaign against civilians in Darfur. The Bush administration has called this organized slaughter genocide.

The Chinese are also party to this horror, while they arm and support the regime in exchange for oil. It always comes down to some--anything--other than human life.