The classic sad Gap story: begging the dictators to let the aid in
“Powell to Press Sudan to Ease the War for Aid in Darfur,” by Christopher Marquis, New York Times, 30 June, p. A3.
Exhibit A for why we need a Core-wide understanding on an A-to-Z rule set on how to process politically bankrupt states: sweet-talking the killers to let us save some of the hostages to their malevolent use of power in some disconnected country. This leadership should not be in power.
There is enough military power in the Gap to perform this act of humanity. There are enough peacekeepers to manage what comes next. There is enough aid and enough NGOs and PVOs out there to work the rehab issue.
All that is missing is the will to cooperate. All that is missing the avowed desire to shrink the Gap.
Militaries around the Core know what has to be done. Business communities around the Core know what has to be done.
What we lack is the political leadership with the courage and the skill and the imagination and the will to actually pull it off.
We should all sleep better tonight. U.S. imperial power will not touch the killers in Sudan, so the killing will continue.
Ah . . . when dark-skinned people fall dead in a forest far, far away and nobody is there to hear them drop, is there really any sound?
Close your eyes and I’m sure you can hear it.
[webmaster's note: see also White House searches for words on Sudan