Genocide in Slow Motion

"In Darfur genocide is taking place in slow motion, and there is vast documentary proof of the atrocities. Some of the evidence can be seen in the photo reproduced with this essay, which was leaked from an African Union archive containing thousands of other such photos. And now, the latest proof comes in the form of two new books that tell the sorry tale of Darfur: it's appalling that the publishing industry manages to respond more quickly to genocide than the UN and world leaders do."

"In my years as a journalist, I thought I had seen a full kaleidoscope of horrors, from babies dying of malaria to Chinese troops shooting students to Indonesian mobs beheading people. But nothing prepared me for Darfur, where systematic murder, rape, and mutilation are taking place on a vast scale, based simply on the tribe of the victim. What I saw reminded me why people say that genocide is the worst evil of which human beings are capable."

Umm, didn't we accept one of our Presidents lame justifications for going to war in Iraq (after no WMDs were found) as being the fact that Saddam had killed thousands of his own people, years before? So where's the call to arms now? Don't these people deserve to be "liberated" from their homicidal ruler too? This isn't news. It didn't just start. It's been going on long enough for everyone in the world to know about, and try to stop. So again I ask; Where's the call to arms? Where's the public outcry? Why the indifference? Are these people simply to "dark" to bother helping? Yeah, I said it!! Do we always have to wait until our leaders tell us we should be concerned?

I guess since no one has much of a corporate or strategic interest in that country, it's not worth losing any sleep over. Why is it whenever we should get involved, we just can't find a good enough reason. I smell hypocracy again.

SUDAN: Darfur Overview