The Daily Background

After the Rwandan genocide in 1994 occurred, some speculated that the reason why President Clinton’s Administration hadn’t termed it genocide was that if they had, they would be compelled to act through the United Nations to intervene in the tragedy. A decade later in 2004, the Bush Administration, led by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell (perhaps not wanting to be stuck in the same situation) termed the crisis in Darfur genocide. The White House then proceeded to take… no actual action on the issue.

The Administration has quietly suggested that the small, badly trained, poorly funded and under-equipped African Union (AU) troops already in the area ought to intervene. So quietly that Republican-controlled Congress didn’t hear their master’s order and turned down funding proposed by the Secretary of State to help AU forces achieve the impossible mission.

The Administration has also quietly suggested that the United Nations intervene in the crisis. But the White House has indicated that it has no absolutely interest in providing funding or troops for the mission of intervention itself.

In other words, the White House is content to talk about it, and complain about how the United Nations is too slow, or that the Sudanese government is not cooperating and so on– but they aren’t willing to take any action. A whole lot of huff and puff, but no real stuff. And certainly no real boots on the ground. If that makes any sense.

This past Monday, the United Nations held an event at which it secured pledges for the first UN-supplied troops who will deploy to Darfur in the coming months. And who pledged soldiers? Norway, Nigeria, Tanzania and Bangladesh. Yeah, that’s right. Bangladesh contributed soldiers. And the White House didn’t.

Of course, there’s a very good reason why Bangladesh could find it in their hearts to stop the genocide in Darfur, and the White House couldn’t. See, Bangladesh isn’t stuck in the civil war of another country. And the US military is.

According to a congressional report issued by Democrats in early August, the United States of America has no strategic reserve. Even if the Bush Administration wanted to, they don’t have any troops to send to intervene in Darfur. Because of the President’s pet war.

Filed under: Darfur Related, Z-TDB Blog