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Monday, April 11, 2005

More than Words

The Moose urges the President to apply his freedom doctrine to Darfur.

The President eloquently stated in his inaugural address,

"The rulers of outlaw regimes can know that we still believe as Abraham Lincoln did: "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it."

For these words to have genuine meaning they must apply to the government of Sudan. The Bush Administration should move beyond mere jawboning to meaningful action. In addition to seriously considering military intervention along with our allies, it is time to talk tough to those countries such as China and Russia which are collaborating with those who are conducting the slaughter in Darfur.

The Washington Post editorializes today,

"You face genocide in Sudan with the international partners you have, not the ones you might wish to have. If the United States does not lead on Darfur, nobody else is going to. Leadership means getting a much larger peacekeeping force into Darfur, so that attacks on civilians cease and humanitarian workers can reach all parts of the territory. To achieve that objective, Mr. Zoellick needs to break the collective paralysis by changing the way the Chinese, Russians, Europeans and Africans think; his most important mission is not this week's visit to Khartoum but future trips to Beijing, Moscow and so on. Mr. Zoellick must argue that nations calling themselves civilized cannot stand by while hundreds of thousands are massacred. He must ask America's partners to judge themselves not by whether they have made sympathetic gestures, nor even whether they have done "their share," but rather by the one standard that matters: Is the genocide continuing?"

How long will the world wait to act?
-- Posted at 11:40 AM | Link to this post | Email this post