13 Comments

They gave chicken dinners? And Neo-Neocon got a calender? Geez, I left way too early and missed out on all the goodies.

Coming back to Darfur, just what *should* we do. I don’t see any good way to apply pressure if China, the Europeans, the Arabs are uninterested in doing anything. Meanwhile organizations like AI are chasing after Koran flushings and the Dems are chasing after Bush. Where is the Black Caucus and the OAU in all this, don’t they care?

The only thing I can see making a difference at this point is military force combined with arming and training the poor folk being wiped out. France could probably do this from the Central African Republic if they were so inclined. But I don’t see them taking any action and see even less chance that there will be any support for the US doing so. I think we are stuck watching. It is shameful, because I suspect a little force could make a big difference.

Just for the record, is there ANY “progressive” agency, organization, media outlet, politician, academic, or public figure of any kind that will not throw over the pious values they trumpet, without hesitation, for a short-term political advantage?

Hubert Humphrey, Tip O’Neill, Patrick Moynihan – there are hundreds of them. None living though.

Roger:

Darfur is the classic example of why President Bush was smart not to wait on the UN to do anything about Saddam. The Darfur atrocity could be stopped with a fairly small military force. Egypt’s Army could do it by themselves. The countries that are not helping us in Iraq have the means to stop the slaughter on Sudan. They do not have the will. The UN handled Rwanda by doing nothing. The UN was handling Milosevic by letting him perform ethnic cleansing. They write resolutions. They find a way to focus on Israel at all costs. We are busy in Iraq and Afghanistan so they do nothing about Darfur. And since it is a Muslim government that is heading the slaughter the Arab bloc would try to block any action anyway. They like to portray President Bush as a dummy. Well, at least he is clever enough to recognize that the UN is never going to handle any problem if it requires force. They wait until the slaughter is done and then do studies and blame America for doing nothing. If we don’t do it no one does anything. They hate our Army but they rely on it to handle the violent despots. And groups like AI have joined the propaganda force. I know we can’t but sometimes I think we should just tell the world that we are going to protect Israel but other then them we are taking the next 20 years off and whatever meglomaniac that decides this is the time to go off on these pricks they can handle them on their own. Maybe China will do it for them. I am sure their asking price won’t be too high.

Forget AI. Save your anger for the Times (via Rantburg).

AI’s conflation of Gitmo with the holocaust (I don’t use that word lightly) in Sudan is a complete mockery of the terrible suffering of the 100’s of thousands of Sudanese slaughtered and enslaved in Sudan over the last few decades. AI has forfeited any moral claim to being a “human rights” organization. They obviously don’t give a damn about human rights any more.

I’ve caught a lot of flak for attacking the moonbats who blogathon for Amnesty every year, but I stand by everything I’ve said about them.

I’m sure we’ll see another shriek by AI over palestinian prisoners with blood on their hands not being released into the wilds of Gaza and Jenin, but nothing about the victims of their bloody deeds.

And here’s a few more…

I think Amnesty went too far this time. They are getting so far out there that the Washington Post is even critical.

I don’t know what happened to them. I don’t know if it was a natural progression of their politics or if it is the money they get from certain people but ignoring some of the really ugly things that happen in the world while equating the US with the Soviet Union is stupid. It is not just ill advised. It is not only out of bounds. It is stupid and it makes them look stupid. It is like comparing Israelis to Nazis for the security fence. Yeah right, if the Israelis were the nazis there would no Plaestinians in the occupied territories. Hell there would be no occupied territories.

And if we ran detention centers like the gulag we would be hiding millions of people in work/death camps without access to the outside world, much less lawyers.

I wrote Amnesty a letter and ask them if they planned to take a break from trashing the US and Isarel long enough to deal with a real human rights tragedy like that in Darfur. I told them it seemed to me that Islamists are getting a free ride from them and that made them less than uselss. It made them part of the problem.

Terrye,

I don’t know what happened to them.

Getting paid for indignation is an easy job? Don’t know, but as a simple minded guy who manages by rules of thumb, I have formulated the general principle that everything touched by the left turn to shit. It’s the modern version of the Midas touch.

chuck:

They are good at exposing bad situations, so they make it their business to create bad situations.

I think it is politics and the Iraq war, but this is getting ridiculous.

The real downside to the Amnesty International claim of American “gulag” is that it nows gives the US the wide berth to kill about half of the prisoners at Gitmo in order to fulfill the reality of the “gulag” status.

We al know that isn’t going to happen, but Amnesty International should be a bit slower with the hyperbole with some other nations that might see this a relaxation of the pressure to improve human rights conditions.