"Not On My Watch."

From an editorial in the New Yorker by Philip Gourevitch author of an in-depth account of the Rwandan Genocide and a New Yorker staff writer.

"Shortly after Bush took office, an adviser gave him a report on the Clinton Administration’s policy of inaction during the Rwandan genocide, and on it the President wrote, “Not on my watch!

...the janjaweed militias sponsored by the Sudanese government are reported to have killed hundreds of thousands of people, raped a great many of the women they left alive, and driven some two million from their homes to live—and to be hunted—in desert refugee camps, where potable water is scarce and disease widespread. Despite the Sudanese government’s acceptance of a cease-fire agreement last month, the violence has continued apace.

...Now there are plans to deploy as many as twenty thousand United Nations peacekeeping troops to Darfur at the end of this year. It is not clear that the Sudanese will permit such a force or that the U.N. can muster it—but, assuming that it happens, this is a decidedly lax timetable in the face of a steadily mounting death toll."

The estimated number of deaths to date are backed up by the BBC which reports an estimate of estimate200,000. An additional 2 million, the BBC agrees, have been displaced.

And now the UN has decided to do something about this appaling situation. It seems UN sponsored troops will be going in immediately...well, not immediately...more like 6 months! Yep! By the end of this year, for sure, the UN will step-in. Nevermind that the killings sponsored by the Sudanese government have been going on for 3 years. For some reason, the UN can simply not go in till after christmas.

Where the fuck is Bob Geldoff? What am I doing for my summer vacation you might ask? Where will you be this Christmas? Please pass the salt.