Bush's Pathetic Darfur Gesture

If the definition of a gesture is "a slight movement to convey one's intentions," then President Bush has done just that today with Darfur.

In a pronouncement that ran but minutes, this morning Bush called for a "plan B" in the Sudan. Basically a twist of the screws to what had been considered "plan A:" intensifying pre-standing sanctions against the nation. Targeting specific companies and barring them from doing business with Western Financial institutions. Throw some further sanctions at a couple senior Sudanese officials and a rebel leader.

All and all, yes, that adds up to a gesture; a weak little motion to remind the suffering in Darfur that, yeah, somebody's over here. Somebody's taking your plight into consideration.

Long, slow consideration.

Such languid wringing of hands has been the tepid non-response to the crisis since the US labeled the killings in Darfur genocide back in 2004.

The lack of significant response is not wholly the Administration's fault. Khartoum and the government of Sudanese president Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir have strong strategic partners in China, which loves little Sudan for its oil.

Great. Another oil conflict brewing.

And new-to-the-world stage U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has been begging and begging for one more shot at giving peace a chance before more serious action in Darfur is taken.

But since when has President Bush needed any stinkin' UN resolution to go it alone?

And why more than three years after declaring the Darfur killings genocide -- something the UN has yet to do -- has it taken so long to get even this token gestures from the president?

Like with everything else in the new normal, you can blame it on Osama.

No, really, this time you can.

Way back in '97 Bin Laden and his upstart Al Qaeda bunch were based in Khartoum. After they left for Afghanistan, President Bashir kept ties with Al Qaeda and other terrorist-affiliated groups. That meant Khartoum has had inside info on any number of terrorists.

As detailed in an April '05 article in the LA Times, Sudan's Mukhabarat, its version of the CIA, used that info to be a good little soldier in the global war on terrorism. They've detained Al Qaeda suspects, seized evidence recovered in raids on terrorists' homes, turned over extremists to Arab intelligence agencies working closely with the CIA. The regime is even taking credit for spoiling a terrorist attack or two by foreign fighters on their way to hook up with Iraqi insurgents.

But all those good deeds come at a price. Khartoum has been swapping intel with Washington in exchange for Washington backing the F up off of Sudan in a diplomatic sense; pushing the Administration to take it off a list of state sponsors of terrorism and to dump sanctions barring the majority of trade between the US and Sudan.

And among all this horse-trading, America did little to help the native Africans being killed by the Arab Janjaweed militia in this Darfur "thing." Meanwhile "about 2,000 villages were burned, as many as 450,000 people were killed and more than 2.5 million were displaced in continuing violence," according to the Washington Post.

Four hundred fifty thousand dead -- 9/11 to the 150th -- to get some information that perhaps might have saved how many lives?

Honestly, that's some harsh math right there, having to calculate the cost of doing nothing.

My fear is the answer to the equation could be fluid. Despite the tough talk Bush is tossing out, if history is our guide, it might be awhile before the world comes around to doing anything about Darfur.