Darfur: The Near-Perfect Leftist Cause

At the bottom of Mark Steyn's column today was this announcement he found somewhere in his Internet trolling:

"On Sunday, April 29, Salt Lake Saves Darfur invites the greater Salt Lake community of compassion to join with us as we honor the fallen and suffering Darfuris in a day of films, discussion and dance with a Sudanese dance troupe."

Here's a bit more, from a Deseret News op/ed by a SLSD (Save LSD? No, Salt Lake Saves Darfur.):

Salt Lake Saves Darfur, the local organization of the international Save Darfur Coalition, in observance of the Global Days for Darfur, April 21-29, is sponsoring a series of events to bring the plight of these suffering people to the vision and the hearts of the great people of Salt Lake and Utah. On Saturday, we will be sponsoring, in partnership with the Westminster College chapter of STAND, a lecture by noted Africa and Sudan expert John Prendergast titled "Stopping the Genocide in Darfur." This lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 7 p.m. in the Gore Auditorium on Westminster College's beautiful campus in Salt Lake, and will also be broadcast for those unable to attend.

On Sunday, April 29, Salt Lake Saves Darfur invites the greater Salt Lake community of compassion to join with us as we honor the fallen and suffering Darfuris in a day of films, discussion and dance with a Sudanese dance troupe, Kakwa Union USA, at Salt Lake's magnificent Main Library and Plaza, from 1-5 p.m. This event is also free and open to all. We will discuss ways to get our government to insist on the immediate placement of adequate United Nations peacekeepers to "stop the killing now," get our government to pay its fair share of the costs for this international peacekeeping effort and insist that our government and institutions divest themselves of any entity deriving profit from the inhumane Al-Bashir regime and the slaughter of the innocent people of Darfur.

I'm sure these people are well-intentioned, but their leftist approach is a tragicomedy. Darfur's tragedy; our comedy. They 're going to teach and appreciate and talk and talk and talk. Yet for all of this, they are utterly without a clue. They're only true action is buried in another of their endless discusions:

We will discuss ways to get our government to insist on the immediate placement of adequate United Nations peacekeepers to "stop the killing now," [and] get our government to pay its fair share of the costs for this international peacekeeping effort ...

Do these people not read the news? Everyone wants U.N. peacekeepers in Dafur, including "our government" ... except for one bunch: the Islamists in Khartoum, who block every effort to stop the killing. The Save Dafur group should be saying to stop relying on the U.N., which already has added Dafur to Rwanda on its list of African genocides it did not stop, but they love the idea of the U.N. so much they can't reject the reality.

And I can't for the life of me understand why the Save Dafur crowd wants us to reduce the amount of our contribution to the U.N. efforts, but there it is: "... get our government to pay its fair share of the costs ..."

Over at SaveDafur.org, the looniest mothership since the Heaven's Gate cult suited up for the coming of the Comet Hale-Bopp. Here's their call to action:

Push for the deployment of a strong UN peacekeeping force.

Increase humanitarian aid and ensure access for aid delivery.

Establish a no-fly zone.

With the exception of the no-fly zone, which will do nothing to stop the killers who arrive by Toyota pickup and camel, they have absolutely nothing new to offer, and no way of offering it, other than the U.N. Humanitarian aid is good, great actually, but its effect will be temporary if people continue dying. It won't make much difference if their stomachs are full or empty when the Janjaweed arrive.

All this points to one conclusion: The Save Dafur crowd should be pushing for military action by the U.S. in Dafur. They know it's the only think that will save the Christians -- funny, they never mention this is a Muslim-run genocide of Christians -- is an invasion to take out Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir and his thugs in Khartoum, as we took out Saddam Hussein and his thugs in Baghdad.

But they can't bring themselves to call for such an action because recognizing the need for Iraq, and thus aligning with Bush, is more evil to them than the genocide in Sudan.

While Dafur is a universal cause, the SaveDafur.org approach has become a near-perfect leftist cause, right up there with global warming. There's no risk to them that they'll actually have to do anything beyond the symbolic. There will be no draft to stop either crisis, and most important, it appears that there will be no solution to either any time soon.

That means they can go on watching Sudanese dance troops, discussing options, and most important of all, feeling holier than the GOP, for the indefinite future.

Steyn said what this all reminds him of, and he's absolutely right on. I remember seeing the bumper sticker 40 years ago, and the noble struggle (no sacrifice required) goes on today:


It's a shame Tibet is under China's' thumb, and it's an abomination that al-Bashir remains free to kill Christians in Dafur. But neither country is the least bit strategic so they suffer on, far outside the spotlight, while the world, conservative and liberal alike, are appalled ... and unable to muster the will to take the fight to Khartoum.

p.s.: One thing I like very much on the Save Dafur Web site is its call for divesture of investments in companies that do business in Sudan. I hope they will reciprocate, and share my enthusiasm for Divest Terror, which does the same for all terror-supporting states.