Canadians bloviate while Darfur burns

Same old headline, and the Arab states (and probably their people) don't give a...

...in a speech earlier in the day [March 28] at the Arab summit [in Riyadh], al-Bashir underlined his objections to a 20,000-strong combined U.N.-AU peacekeeping force, saying the United Nations should only provide financial and technical help to African peacekeepers already on the ground.

Al-Bashir slammed U.N. resolutions calling for U.N. troop deployment in Darfur as "a violation for Sudan's sovereignty" and said they "provoke the conflict in Darfur, instead of finding a solution for it."..

But Gerald Caplan, one of Canada's great and good, asks the question the international community is longing to hear:

Why is Canada not speaking up to decry the shameful opportunism and cynicism of the UN's permanent five?

So the US and UK are just as bad as Russia and China. Phooey on leftist relativism. Read the analysis at the Army.ca link.

As for the French, they're busy protecting their national interests next door:

France, the former colonial power in Chad, has an air force contingent of 3,000 now in the country...

Even more, from greater and gooder Canadians Allan Rock and Lloyd Axworthy:

Canada is failing the test of leadership in Darfur. As the sponsor and principal advocate of "Responsibility to Protect" -- the doctrine that recognizes an international responsibility to protect populations from genocide and other mass atrocities --Canada should be leading a sustained diplomatic and political push to stop the fighting, protect the population and broker a peace pact in Darfur.

[...]

...So how can Canada help? Here are steps we can take immediately...We should bring together a "contact group" of countries that share our concern, drawing from different regions and political interests, including the League of Arab States [hah! see above]...

...it must also be made clear that Sudan's failure to accept a protective force will have consequences. The contact group must be ready to persuade the Security Council to impose and enforce meaningful measures to show that the world means business...

-Lloyd Axworthy served as minister of foreign affairs from 1995-2000. Allan Rock served as Canada's ambassador to the United Nations from 2004 to 2006. In this capacity, he acted as Canada's representative during the negotiation of the May 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement.

What pleasant planet do these people live on? Have they brains? Did they learn nothing about reality on the job? Their idea of policy, I would suggest (and it is far too common with Canadians), is that attitudes are action and proposals in themselves purposeful--especially since they make us feel oh so morally superior to those damned Yankees. Who, in the end, will have to do most of the heavy lifting most of the time. Thank goodness they no longer have power of any sort, other than with our self-satisfied chattering classes.

Latest: progress that means nothing effectual:

"Sudan has now agreed for the U.N. to provide logistical support to help African forces," Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said at a news conference.

Those logistics will sure solve things.

Mark C.

Posted by markc at March 30, 2007 12:02 AM