5,000 people dying per month. A promised force of 26,000 amounting to less than half that. And friendly nations standing up and blocking any real punishment for the crimes being comitted. Welcome to the wonderful world of the UN's miserable failure in Darfur.
Of course, we cannot blame the UN alone for this. China, Russia, the Arab League, the African Union and even the US and its allies are all culpable for the continuation of a genocide that has killed 300,000 people and driven nine times that amount from their homes. That being said, I argue that given its power, it was the UN and the UN alone which could summon these disparate powers together to deal with this tragedy. But, as the saying goes, the devil is always in the details.
I could go off on a screed about the hypocrisy at the UN visas vis this genocide versus other issues that the UN concerns itself with, but what would be the point? No fewer people would die or be displaced.
So, I will just make a plee to our current UN ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and more importantly, to incoming ambassador Susan Rice-do not allow this tragedy to continue. Regardless of what other nations may think is the top priority of the UN currently, push to have this put front and center. It may fail-in fact, it almost certainly will-but the United States must do everything in its power to move the world from its collective indifference, collusion and covering up of this mass tragedy.