A Bridge too Darfur

Pretty much every day, while driving home from work in Westchester County I have a little talk with my friend Randi. For the past week or two she has been promoting the American Jewsih World Service rally to stop the Darfur genocide, on April 30, in Washington D.C.

Call my cynical, but I don't think the 1 million postcards they hope to send to President Bush will make much difference to him. Kanye said it best.

Two points:
1. Why the Bush Administration will not get involved in the Darfur genocide:
Relatively few prospects for Halliburton to make a profit.
Unfortunately for Darfurians, they do not live in the first world, and many nations find themselves with other things to worry about. Such as Iraq, Iran, oil prices, and suicide bombings all over the freaking place.
Don't get me wrong, the genocide in Darfur is abhorrent. But I don't believe that many politicians see it as urgent. The hope is that it will burn itself out - as lax and callous and irresponsible as that sounds, based on the amount of action taken, it appears to be the consensus.

2. Why we don't want the Bush Administration to get involved with the Darfur genocide:
Over/under is 8, the bet, how many malapropisms can Bush get out of the word, Janjaweed?
The administration has been a miserable failure, whatever the undertaking. Now we want them to step in to fix Darfur? I really think that's a bad idea. Does anyone have confidence that a US led armed intervention would be prosecuted in a competant matter? That anyone in the administration has anything close to an in-depth understanding of the situation, how and why it started, and how best to stop it?
I don't.

I would like to see US troops out of Iraq.
I would like to see someone step up and murder the genociders in Darfur.
But based on the extent to which our military has been abused, I do not relish sending American troops to the Sudan. The nobility of the cause is not in question. Neither is the necessity of action. But the liklihood and practicality of US involvment is slim.