Wes Clark on Darfur.

[Clarkie1]

If Clark had been the decider in 1994, hundreds of thousands of lives could have been potentially saved in Rwanda. Now, Clark is presenting practical ways to save untold thousands of lives in Darfur. This is the kind of leadership America needs to regain it's moral standing in the world, but do we have the political will to act?

4/20/06
General Wesley Clark: Why the U.S. should care about Darfur
NPR New and Notes

Ferai Chideya: But when you talk about united action, what do you mean? And I'm going to just tread on some sensitive ground here. In Kosovo and in the whole Balkans conflict, you had a bunch of white people who were dying, who were being killed by other white people. There seems to be a certain level of compassion fatigue about black people being killed by other black people or brown people and a lack of ability to mobilize international forces to the aid of groups like that.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I don't know if it's racist. And I do know this, that the United States is heavily committed in Iraq right now and in Afghanistan. Certainly the administration's got it's hand full, and so does NATO, which is by the way, looking well beyond its borders. But here's something that's immediately important to do. I think with the right kind of leadership from the administration, we could focus NATO on this problem. I don't think it could be done without the presence of some US troops on the ground in the region, as well as US assistance with air power and command and control. But I think it's a relatively small number of US troops that would be required, and I think we could muster a large force of supporting troops. You know, in the occupation in Kosova, at the end of the war, the US troops were never in the majority in that operation. I think the most we ever had was on the order of five or six thousand US troops, and yet we had over 40,000 total troops involved in occupying Kosova. It shows what kind of leverage the United States can provide when the United States is engaged.

Ferai Chideya: Now the US has a complicated relationship with Sudan. We have mentioned energy, but also we've received valuable information from their Intelligence Minister, who was once Bin Ladin's personal handler and is considered an architect of the campaign in Darfur. Are we, as some reports would allege, a long Los Angeles Times series for example, enabling a genocide in exchange for intelligence in the war on terror?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I suspect that the intelligence is of some utility, but I also believe that we've got to be very careful not to buy off on and endorse regimes like this just because they'll provide intelligence. There's no telling how valuable the intelligence really is. We don't know what part of it is accurate, what's inaccurate, and more importantly, we don't know that we're getting all that could be gotten. So, in this case I think the intelligence is, is certainly useful, but if the government of Sudan wants to remain a government in the world in good standing, then it's got to obey international law. It hasn't done that.

Ferai Chideya: International law often comes down to the United Nations. Now Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice recently called for an increased UN presence in Sudan, Particularly in Darfur, and the House, here in the US, recently passed a bill calling for action in Darfur and economic sanctions. Is that enough, are these rumblings enough, to make something happen?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: No, I don't think it is enough, because without a stronger international presence along the border, without US troops there to bring this mission home to world opinion, we won't have the leverage to stop the government of Sudan.

http://securingamerica.com/node/875

THE REAL STATE OF THE UNION 2006
THE NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION
Monday, January 30, 2006

I think we're making a big mistake. I've called publicly for the creation of an intervention force in Darfur. I think it's long overdue. As much as we respect the efforts of the African Union to try to get a grip on this problem, they simply lack the means to do so. They need assistance from the outside and I'd like see the United States lead NATO to provide that kind of assistance. It's got to be coordinated. It's got to be acceptable to the people on the ground, because they're the ones that have sovereignty over the terrain. But I think with the right approach, with the right will, with the right kind of force, we could do that and we could save thousands and thousands of lives. I think that when you can make a difference, you should. And we do have the power to make a difference in Darfur, and we should.

http://securingamerica.com/node/560

06 Apr 2004
VIEWPOINT-Ten years after Rwanda: Never Again?
If genocide were looming today, would the international response be any better than it was during the Rwanda genocide in 1994, asks Oxfam International Chairman David Bryer.

CLEAR GUIDES NEEDED
Ten years after Rwanda, the world must reapply itself to this most fundamental question. We urgently need an agreement among governments on clear and consistent principles to guide when the Security Council should act to protect civilians around the world. Military intervention should always be the last resort. The Canadian-backed report, "Responsibility to Protect," published in December 2001, lays out just such a framework. It argues that where a population is facing large-scale killings, which the state in question is unwilling or unable to halt, the principle of non-intervention yields to the international responsibility to protect civilians.

On a more practical level, we need to see the provision of forces and resources on the ground that were so tragically lacking in Rwanda. Throughout the three months of slaughter, from April to June 1994, there were ample opportunities for a relatively small, well-trained force to intervene and stop genocide in its tracks. There were many proposals -- not least from U.S. General Wesley Clark, who presented a plan for a small force to establish corridors of escape.

http://mobile.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefresources/108...

[Gloria]

1. Thanks for pulling it all together......

[motocicleta]

2. k & r