August 14, 2004

What A "Sensitive" War Looks Like

Denis Boyles on how John Kerry's "sensitive" foreign policy would work. One need look no further than Sudan: (ellipses mine - Ed.)

For a good example of how a sensitive, Frenchified foreign policy works, let's look at the warring, unhappy natives in faraway Darfur, a dusty stretch of the Sudanese way-outback. According to the U.S. Congress, there's a genocide going on in Darfur, and if we apply John Kerry's secret plan, it's all being handled just right...

About two years ago, this long-running conflict appeared likely to eventually morph into an Ethiopian-scale disaster, something that would require the intervention of, like, rock stars or something if disaster were to be averted. For months, NGOs and various U.N. agencies, along with the Bush administration, kept warning that things were going to go very south in Darfur.

When the number of displaced reached a million or so, and when the dead numbered in the tens of thousands, and when the victims of rape and mutilation could no longer be counted at all, and when the entire population stood at the brink of starvation, and when all the rock stars were busy planning to go out pimping for Kerry, the U.S. did what John Kerry says we should always in order to wage a more sensitive campaign for democracy and justice. America went to the U.N. The Daily Telegraph reported that the U.S. secretary of State stood in the middle of a big Sudanese nowhere, spoke softly, and threatened the killers with the big Nerf stick: knock it off, he said, or face the wrath of the U.N....

The U.S. wanted to move decisively, but the resolution offered by the Bush administration went off the tracks because it contained the word "sanctions." "Sanctions" is not a sensitive word... Who on the Security Council had objected to the word "sanctions" and thrown the process into the slow lane? And why?

I'll spoil the suspense here, because you already know the answer. It was the French, of course....The Sudan sits on what some experts think is a pool of oil the size of Araby, practically. And, as the BBC later nearly misreported...the French have an oil deal with Sudan, just as they did with the Iraqis.

France is not our ally. France acts in the interests of France. Why would we expect anything else? They stood to make billions in revenues on Iraqi oil fields if Saddam had stayed in power. They have similar dollars at stake in Sudan, and everything could proceed according to plan if the pesky United States would quit harping about a little genocide.

Posted by dan at August 14, 2004 2:42 PM