This is what is happening in Western Sudan now.
The situation is complex and I can’t claim to understand what is going on there now. As I’ve said before, it would take quite a bit of argument to persuade me that intervention was the best option. But it seems to me that there are a whole range of appropriate things that could be done – condemnation, support for humanitarian operations, political pressure of various kinds, perhaps – perhaps – inducements for reform, and so on. Why isn’t anyone doing anything of this sort now?
The U.S. has its hands full now. Two war-torn countries reconstructed at a time, thank you very much. But the U.S. isn’t the only potential actor here. Where is the rest of the world? Where is Canada? Where is Europe?
When we get a situation like this, many people are inclined to think a) a military intervention is the only option on the table; and b) it’ll be the U.S. organizing the whole thing. Both assumptions are unhealthy, since they play directly into the whole neo-colonialist mindset that gets the U.S. in trouble so often. There are probably plenty of constructive non-military measures available, and they’re open to the rest of the world.
If the U.S. is so untrustworthy and rotten, then why won’t the rest of the world get off its ass and act once in a while?
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