Least Deserving Case for Major International Military Intervention

[MOBIUS]

From a purely humanitarian POV...

This thought just occurred to me as the genocidal violence again escalates in Darfur again so that it is even spilling over into neighbouring countries and threatening their borders.

No wonder I say, when there are only 6,000 poor equipped African peacekeepers patrolling an area the size of France, while the rest of the international community turns its back on a simmering conflict that has already claimed an estimated 180,000 lives...

Only one of these nations has been the subject of an overwhelming military intervention costing hundreds of billions of dollars and the deaths of thousands of western troops and that occurred despite the ongoing genocide in Darfur at the time that still continues to this day...

So when is it that we're finally going to tackle the humanitarian disaster in Darfur that George Bush himself calls genocide again?

[MOBIUS]

Bollocks, can't edit the the poll - that first one is supposed to be Cambodia...

[GePap]

No one cares about Africa.

[lord of the mark]

I dont think we could get the world to agree on regime change by force in Sudan. Its been hard enough getting even limited sanctions. We should press for more support for the African Union force in Darfur, and more pressure on the govt of the Sudan. I doubt as much would have been done as has been done, had it not been for such pressure.

[duke o' york]

Originally posted by MOBIUS
Bollocks, can't edit the the poll - that first one is supposed to be Cambodia...

Ask a mod!

No banana option mind, maybe you could ask for that too.

Darfur is a disgrace upon the UN.

[Kontiki]

Much of Africa is a disgrace upon the UN.

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by duke o' york
Ask a mod!

No banana option mind, maybe you could ask for that too.

Well obviously a Banana would be least deserving of a major international military intervention - my poll would have collapsed around my ears!

Darfur is a disgrace upon the UN.

Well, the US had a clear choice: stop a genocide - or attack Iraq since utterly discredited reasons...

[MOBIUS]

Are you guys even reading my poll question correctly?

[DinoDoc]

I did.

[GePap]

While I keep hearing "genocide" about Dafur, I have never seen anything that resembles the more obvious cases, like Rwanda or Cambodia. What seems to be happening is a systematic campaign to drive people out of their land, and people die from causes related to being uprooted and chased. This campaign though seems far les organized than say the Turkish campaign against Armernians.

So for all the talk of Genocide, I think that currently is an overestatement of the situation. And given that Sudan has seen millions die in the South as it is, I don't see the world rushing in.

As for the poll, obviously the answer is Iraq, at least after 1992. So what was the point of making it?

[Sava]

boycott this poll

no banana option

MOBIUS

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by GePap
So what was the point of making it?

Trolling.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by GePap
While I keep hearing "genocide" about Dafur, I have never seen anything that resembles the more

HRW calls it ethnic cleansing. Though it seems that the means to encourage flight have included rape, among other things.

[lord of the mark]

CBS news:

'Survivors say the attacks usually start at dawn, with bombs falling from planes of the Sudanese Air Force.

"And then here come the Janjaweed on camel or on horseback," Prendergast says. "They come rolling into the town, shooting and torching the village, often bringing women to the side and raping women indiscriminately. And in order to ensure that the destruction is complete, the government either sends ground forces to oversee the operation, or the attack helicopters, which often are the most deadly things."

"They arrived on horseback, killed my husband and took my son," says Toona, who still didn't know what happened to her son eight months later. She left Sudan with five surviving children after the Janjaweed burned her village.

"They never gave me a chance to talk to my child," Toona says. "Some of them dragged my son away, others slaughtered my husband, and some others took me to the side, and tortured me and left me there. My newborn was snatched off my back, and was left lying on the ground. I found him in that situation when they let me go."


So, they kill, rape, and torture. But the INTENTION may be to expel, rather than to completely eliminate the group. And MOST deaths have been due to starvation and disease. So I guess one could say its not genocide, if one wished.

[Richelieu]

There's this great line in "Hotel Rwanda" where the UN military commander has a few drinks and tells the hero of the movie that the international community isn't going to be sending any troops because "You're not even ******s... you're Africans".