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Beyond the Bates Bubble, genocide is taking place. ‑United Nations aid workers have described it as "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world." The Sudanese government is complicit in arming and supporting a militia which is systematically murdering tens of thousands of black Africans in the western providence of Darfur. ‑Following aerial bombing raids by the Sudanese air force, this militia, the Janjaweed, is responsible for killing boys as young as 15, raping women, looting all that they can carry, and burning all that they leave behind. ‑The Economist reports that 70,000 have already died and the slaughter continues at the rate of 10,000 people per month. ‑Over two million Darfuris have fled their villages to cross the western border into Chad. ‑These refugee camps, which are teeming with people, are lacking in food and water while diseases kill many of the Darfuris which the Janjaweed left behind.
The international community is clearly aware that these atrocities are taking place on a daily basis. ‑The House of Representatives voted 422-0 to pass a resolution declaring that genocide is taking place. (An unusual display of unanimity by any measure.) ‑Despite mounting evidence from personal accounts, NGO surveys, and satellite photos of charred villages, a U.N. commission on Darfur found no clear evidence of genocide. ‑Crimes "no less serious and heinous" have taken place, the report stated. ‑There have been no U.N. sanctions or punitive measures levied by the international community against the Sudanese government to stop the slaughter. ‑Russia does not want to lose the revenue gained from selling fighter jets to the Sudanese government, nor do France and China wish to compromise their large oil interests by supporting sanctions. ‑And the slaughter continues.
A senior United States politician stated that the United Nations was at risk of fading "into history as an ineffective, irrelevant, debating society." This could not be more true than in the case of Darfur. ‑How many must die before the U.N. decides that genocide is taking place, or before any intervention is decided upon? ‑Over 800,000 died as the U.N. Security Council voted to withdraw peacekeepers during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. ‑According to the International Rescue Committee, 3.8 million have died during a five-year-long civil war in Congo, which began in August 1998. ‑"Never again" is a mantra that the U.N. chants in regard to genocide. ‑Yet one struggles to find an example where the body representing the international community has succeeded in averting such death and misery.
Unilateralism is decried in the U.N. as a threat to the legitimacy of the entire system. ‑Yet the abundant failures of the U.N. to form a coherent multilateral solution to the numerous, well-documented atrocities of recent history are each indictments of the legitimacy of such a body. Barring a complete reversal in the policy of the U.N., unilateral military intervention or intervention by a coalition of the willing is the only reasonable solution. ‑Once the United States has sufficient troops, a military intervention into Darfur must take place to stop the killing. To the anger of many, the United States is the defacto policeman of the world because so many others have shirked their duty in favor of stability. ‑Sadly, the "stability" of the status quo was the same justification used by those sympathetic to slavery, those opposed to entering World War II, and those who favored a divided Germany. ‑Even a cursory review of‑history will prove the proper course of action for the United States in the case of Darfur.
-Pat Cunningham '05