[Peace-discuss] 9 questions on Darfur

[Tom Mackaman]

I would like to offer some unsolicited advice on the question of Darfur (I'm certainly not arguing for or against AWARE's sponsorship on this question.) 
   
  It seems that the heart of the matter on Darfur is the growing movement to demand western "peacekeepers" be deployed to the region.  I think that members of AWARE should ask some difficult questions of themselves and of Mr. Schwartz.  Among them:
   
  1.  Under what conditions can American, EU, or UN occupation serve the interests of peace?  I would submit they cannot.  A short but very big question for the peace movement to consider!  
   
  2.  Who will run the show in Darfur, those interested in defending it, or Western imperialism?  The former think that they can use the latter for peace.  I think that is naive.  Any "peacekeeping" force in Darfur will come only once the major powers have hammered out amongst themselves the division of labor and the spoils.  It is more than likely that intervention has not yet taken place precisely because of inter-imperialist conflict.
   
  3  What is the history of the conflict and what role does oil play in it?  In fact, the development of oil and the discovery of more extensive reserves seems to have been at the heart of both the independence movement and the ruthless reaction from the Sudanese government.  China has become the leading customer for Sudanese oil, and is reluctant to support measures against Sudan for its own predatory reasons.  Certainly Bush, Blair, Berlusconi, Merkel, Chirac, et.al., are acutely aware of this situation, and it will figure prominently in any decision to intervene.
   
  4.  What is the actual situation?  If most death in Darfur is owed to disease, famine, lack of infrastructure and poverty, then is calling for military intervention the appropriate response?  I ask these questions sincerely.  No doubt great violence has unfolded and continues, but to abandon all critical faculties on the matter would be dangerous.  The lessons of Yugoslavia should be called to mind.  Many on the left were bamboozled by charges of genocide carried out by Serbs.   These claims turned out to have been fraudulant.  Indeed, the only "ethnic cleansing" of Kosovo has been of the Serbs.  And the KLA, far from being a "liberation" style army, has turned out to be a major crime cartel.
   
  5.  What would a balance sheet of western "peacekeeping" efforts look like?  Not good!  There is much to consider here, starting with Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, Haiti, and going all the way back to Korea.
   
  6.  When does "humanitarian" military intervention become a demand?  And why are the people who are clamoring for a military presence in Darfur not arguing for intervention in Iraq to defend Sunnis from genocide at the hands of the Americans and their stooges, or to defend Palestinians from Israeli ethnic cleansing?  In fact, unwittingly or not, they are bestowing illegitimate humanitarian credentials on western imperialism, which is dripping from head to toe in blood.  Can militarism be holy in Sudan and heinous in Iraq?
   
  7.  Who are those who are advocating western military intervention?  No doubt the vast majority are sincere, but it is also doubtless the case--as was the case in Yugoslavia--that a number of liberals and ex-radicals will utilize Darfur as an attempt to make their peace with US imperalism.
   
  8.  Who is to blame for Darfur?  Certainly the Sudanese government is the most immediate culprit, but standing above it all is the historical legacy of western and especially British imperialism--which carved up the continent just as it did with the Arab lands-- coupled with the continuing dominance of global finance capital.  This is actually not an irrelevent historical point, as those who are arguing for military intervention are calling for another dose of that same Bad Medicine.   
   
  9.  Why is the peace movement being courted?
   
  Regards,
  Tom
    
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