Two great opinion peices on Sudan to catch up on:
A Broken System - Samantha Power cowrites this peice, basically pointing out how ill-focused the efforts thus far have been in Sudan. For all the high-level visits, what do we have thus far? Food for the hungry, words of pressure for the Sudanese government, but no protection for the victims. The reasons the authors give for this (not by way of rationalization, but more to point out the inaneness of major power policies towards genocide in the "lesser" nations among us): not enough people are dying fast enough, humanitarian aid allows for a mental hand cleansing, passing the buck to the UN Security Council means nobody really takes ownership of the problem. Their conclusion? A rather condemning: "The international system is broken, at least when it comes to Africa."
Reign of Terror - Nick Kristof's column is a bit more pointed at the power's that be. After saluting the Bush admin. for calling genocide by its rightful name, he then goes on to pretty much damn everyone else who could theoretically do something about the situation but remains on the sideline ... Bush, France, Germany, the Islamic world, and Kofi Annan (who, Kristof reminds us, was at the UN during the Rwandan genocide). I'll second Kristof's column for my own taste and add to it every American politician of both parties who have yet to get off the fence. That includes a certain Connecticut Senator whom I otherwise have a fair amount of admiration for his moral clarity on foreign affairs, yet could not bring himself to use the G-word to describe Sudan and has previously balked at the need for troops on the ground.