[Peace-discuss] RE: Darfur (and Gaza)

[Scott Edwards]

Killing civilians is not an indication of a "political conflict". Widespread 
sexual violence is not a by-product of civil war. And the injustice in Gaza 
is no excuse for an injustice in Darfur. I challenge anyone to spend three 
years trying to address widespread rape, murder, poverty, and disease with 
little success and "feel good" about it.

The UN is old news. No one even close to *remotely* familiar with the 
situation in Darfur has had any non-rhetorical hope for a UN peacekeeping 
operation for about a month and some change. The government of Khartoum, 
responsible for millions of deaths since the mid-80s, has heroically stood 
up to the international community, and the international community has 
heroically backed down.

"Sometimes, we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human 
dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become 
irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, 
religion, or political views, that place must--at that moment--become the 
center of the universe." --Elie Wiesel

-scott



>Message: 3
>Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2006 00:43:05 -0600
>From: "C. G. Estabrook" <carl at newsfromneptune.com>
>Subject: [Peace-discuss] Darfur (and Gaza)
>
>"Military intervention won’t stop the killing. Those who are clamouring
>for troops to fight their way into Darfur are suffering from a salvation
>delusion. It’s a simple reality that UN troops can’t stop an ongoing
>war, and their record at protecting civilians is far from perfect.
>Moreover, the idea of Bush and Blair acting as global moral arbiters
>doesn’t travel well. The crisis in Darfur is political. It’s a civil
>war, and like all wars it needs a political settlement..."
>
>Full article at
>http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n23/waal01_.html
>
>"Since March 1 the New York Times has run seventy news stories on Darfur
>(including sixteen pieces from wire services), fifteen editorials and
>twenty-one signed columns, all but one by Nicholas Kristof. Darfur is
>primarily a 'feel good' subject for people here who want to agonize
>publicly about injustices in the world but who don't really want to do
>anything about them...
>
>"Now, Gaza is an entirely different story. The American public as well
>as the US government have a great deal of control over what is happening
>there. And it is Israel, America's prime ally in the Middle East that
>is, on a day-to-day basis, with America's full support, inflicting
>appalling brutalities on a civilian population. To report in any detail
>on what's going on in Gaza means accusing the United States of active
>complicity in terrible crimes wrought by Israel, as it methodically lays
>waste a society of 1.5 million Palestinians..."
>
>Full article at
>http://counterpunch.org/cockburn12042006.html
>
>	###
>
>
>------------------------------
>
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>
>End of Peace-discuss Digest, Vol 35, Issue 9
>********************************************

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