Bush Levels Further Sanctions on Sudan over Darfur Genocide

The deaths in Darfur don’t seem to weigh as heavily on the minds of most world leaders as they do on that of George “LBJ” Bush. As wrong as he has been about Iraq-Nam, he has been right about the murders in Darfur, in western Sudan. The government in Khartoum is colluding with Arab militias to kill or frighten off black farmers and other land holders, and it has done so for years. Mr. Bush has just announced new sanctions against Khartoum to apply new pressure to the government there. Most importantly, he is seeking to stop the Sudanese military from flying in Darfur.

Quite why sanctions are the appropriate response to genocide can only be understood by looking at America’s deployment of military assets. They’re all fighting in Iraq-Nam. Otherwise, the appropriate response to genocide (the 400,000 dead in Darfur certainly qualifies -- and forget the dated figure of 200,000 in the media) is military intervention. It will be worth remembering that the killings in Darfur continued in part because America committed its forces elsewhere. Nevertheless, there are other nations in the world with military assets perfectly able to act – were their political leaders willing.

In a statement, Mr. Bush said that the US Treasury will add 30 companies owned or controlled by the Sudanese government to a list of firms barred from the US financial system. Mr. Bush explained, “It is a crime for American companies and individuals to knowingly do business with them.” He also hit certain individuals in the Sudanese government with a similar sanction. This may seem small, but denying an arms merchant a place to cash his check (the US banking system is an underestimated source of soft power) effectively keeps him from working in Sudan.

Beyond that, though the president said, he wanted a new UN resolution on Darfur. “This resolution will apply new sanctions against the government of Sudan, against individuals found to be violating human rights or obstructing the peace process. It will impose an expanded embargo on arms sales to the government of Sudan. It will prohibit the Sudanese government from conducting any offensive military flights over Darfur. It will strengthen our ability to monitor and report any violations,” said Mr. Bush.

Keeping the Sudanese out of the air over Darfur would level the playing field, and it could follow the precedent of Kurdish Iraq-Nam. While the Saddamite regime still operated in Baghdad, its writ didn’t run to the no-fly zones, especially in the north, in Kurdistan. The Kurds became effectively autonomous and far safer than the rest of the nation. Mr. Bush may still find a foreign policy legacy worth remembering, but in Darfur, not Iraq-Nam. On this issue, he enjoys the complete support of this journal.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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