I see the world is all set to do nothing once again at the prospect of helpless civilians getting massacred. We’re at least talking about it some, but the strongest thing we might do now is an arms embargo? Worse than useless. I’d rather they did nothing.
An arms embargo will hit rebels and civilians harder than then government troops who are doing the massacres or supporting the troops who are. The Sudanese government will already have stockpiles of weapons, and better ways of getting around the embargo. The Darfuri and other anti-government groups will have a harder time skirting the embargo, lacking the same resources and channels. An embargo will just give the Sudanese government an even freer hand to crush their enemies. It’s Bosnia all over. And if we impose an embargo, then it’ll be some time before we’ll do anything else. We have to give it time to “work”, after all.
And check this out. One of these days we’re going to have to wake up about what we’re facing in the world.
I see Time has Sudan as it’s cover story this week. The administration’s simple minded approach to Iraq has distracted us from many other problems.