[Peace-discuss] [Fwd: [CP-General] Biden: Invade Sudan]

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Here's an example of the smokescreen out-of-Iraq-into-Darfur liberalism 
-- usually manifested primarily by former Clinton administration 
officials calling for the bombing of Sudanese airfields -- from a real 
liberal goof (and that's meant as an insult), Joe Biden.  These 
Democrats apparently want to prove that they can be "forceful" on 
foreign policy even though they criticize Bush's war -- by killing 
people in Africa.  They pretend not to notice how such "humanitarian" 
action is actually in aid of the US imperial project in Africa.  The US, 
not bothered by killing Africans when we do it, has recently established 
an "African Command" to coordinate it, overthrown a popular government 
in Somalia, and suborned another in Chad.  --CGE]


	Biden Calls for Military Force in Darfur
	By GEORGE GEDDA
	Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee and a Democratic presidential candidate, called Wednesday for 
the use of military force to end the suffering in Darfur.

"I would use American force now," Biden said at a hearing before his 
committee. "I think it's not only time not to take force off the table. 
I think it's time to put force on the table and use it."

In advocating use of military force, Biden said senior U.S. military 
officials in Europe told him that 2,500 U.S. troops could "radically 
change the situation on the ground now."

"Let's stop the bleeding," Biden said. "I think it's a moral imperative."

Under U.N.-backed agreements approved last fall, a hybrid force of 
22,000 African Union and U.N. peacekeepers are to be deployed in Darfur 
to protect and provide relief for 2.5 million Darfurians who have been 
forced from their homes and are now confined to camps.

"We must set a hard deadline for Khartoum to accept a hybrid U.N.-AU 
force," Biden said.

The Bush administration has always rejected use of military force in 
Darfur, partly because of a possible outcry, particularly in Muslim 
countries about hostile U.S. action in yet another Islamic country on 
the heels of the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Andrew Natsios, the special U.S. envoy to Sudan, said the U.S. has 
agreed to a request by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon for a two- to 
four-week delay in imposing unilateral sanctions against Sudan so 
negotiations can take place on whether Sudan will accept deployment of 
international peacekeepers for Darfur.

Natsios said the U.S. is contemplating sanctions against 29 Sudanese 
companies. He said they are the type of sanctions that have been imposed 
with some success against Iran and North Korea.

If the sanctions are applied on the Sudanese companies, he said, they 
could lead to the paralysis of some of their operations.

"It will have an affect on the economy," Natsios said in testimony to 
the committee.

Biden, of Delaware, and other senators expressed impatience with the 
lack of progress on Darfur four years after civil strife broke out 
between Arab and black tribes in the western Sudanese region.

Sudan's government has agreed to the initial stages of the proposed 
deployment. But President Omar al-Bashir has rejected full deployment, 
concerned that Sudanese sovereignty will be violated and the troops will 
arrest Sudanese officials suspected of authorizing war crimes.
_______________________________________________