Darfur has become a cause celeb-re for many people in the imperialist countries of the US and Western Europe. They are demanding legislation that pushes for intervention by what are deemed ‘peacekeeper’ troops.
If you go to the rallies that demand ‘Save Darfur’, you hear speakers squarely putting the blame for the deaths in Darfur on Arabs and China. The solution of the ‘Save Darfur’ crowd? Send in the troops in to be controlled by the governments of the US and its European allies. The calls go out for legislation that would enable just that.
But who and what really is to blame for world hunger, including that in Darfur region refugee camps? What other possible solution to the crisis in Darfur would work, if not sending in the troops? There certainly is a crisis in Darfur and that is something worth working to alleviate.
How about campaigning for Food Aid instead of troop intervention? The Developed World only spends about $2 billion per year in world relief of hunger. That’s right! Only $2 billion for all the world. The slogan —Food Not Bombs— really is relevant here, yet the ‘Save Darfur’ activists seem oblivious to that? Instead, they blame Khartoum and China for all the problems in Darfur, and actually are demanding an economic war be engaged in against Sudan! That would work like Clinton’s sanctions did against the Iraqi people. That’s no solution at all but is a crime in the making instead.
How easy it would be to increase the food aid relief to $10 billion dollars from the current sad level of $2 billion. The US portion of that would be about $6 billion dollars. Instead, our government prefers to intervene with troops and bombs, and unfortunately there are many misguided activists that are campaigning for just that using Darfur as their excuse. Shame on them. Food, Not Bombs instead. Sending in the military is not the solution to the murders of civilians in Darfur, nor anywhere elsewhere for that matter. Lets call for Food Relief for all of Africa, and in a manner that does not destroy local food production, too. That’s the decent thing to do.
