What Should America Do About Darfur?

For those of you who don't know, a civil war is taking place in Sudan. Since 2003 an estimated 400,000 people have been killed and over 1 million have been displaced as their villages have been systematically burned to the ground. I have heard about this conflict, but I have not taken the time to learn much about it until today. I will not bore you by going into the details of the conflict. If you wish to do so yourself, there are several excellent resources on the Internet. The one I used most was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict.
As with all similar conflicts, there are a large number of issues that all swirl together in a complicated mass. There is no “good” guy or “bad” guy. People are divided along both racial, tribal, and religious lines. There is an arab-african aspect to this conflict. There is a muslim-non-muslim aspect. And, there are numerous other aspects I cannot begin to comprehend. The result, as I stated above is hundreds of thousands of people are being killed and millions are being displaced. There are frequent reports of women being raped, dismemberment, torture, and ethnic cleansing. In some cases, villages have been burned to the ground and completely wiped out, while muslim villages as close as 500m have been completely untouched. It is a horrible situation the likes of which we in American cannot even begin to comprehend. But, still, it exists and it demands a response from us as a nation.
The situation in Darfur is not unique. Across the globe people are killing each other by the hundreds of thousands. The Hutus and the Tutsis, the Serbians and the Croats, the Isrealis and the Palestenians. It is a tragic reality that the human capacity for love and self-sacrifice is only matched by our capacity for evil, hatred and violence. How is America supposed to respond to this?
We could do nothing at all. Or, we could do so little that it amounts to doing nothing. After all, the Sudan is across the ocean on another continent. We are in no danger of having their problem spill over onto our soil. The war is a civil one, between the people of the Sudan. It is none of our business. Both sides have committed atrocities you can be sure. There is a wholesale slaughter of people on both sides, and eventually, one group will emerge victorious. This is a scene that has repeated itself for millenia and who are we to interfere without invitation? In this same category of inaction are such things as voting for U.N. sanctions against the warring groups and endless diplomatic discussions that yield few or no results while people continue to die. If only the pesky problem of morality did not present itself, it would be easy to make this choice. But can we live with that. Can we live with the knowledge that we stood by and allowed over 400,000 people to die while we did nothing? What about when it becomes 1 million people, or 6 million? What is the magic number that stirs us up and requires us to act, regardless of the opposition, simply because it is the right thing to do?
We could put on our cape, mount our white horse, and ride off into battle, intent on vanquishing evil and restoring truth, justice, and the American way. In the case of Darfur, I can only conclude this means sending in our military to suppress both sides and “force” a cease fire. In the meantime, the conflict between both sides will continue to simmer, boiling over here and there while American troops get caught in the middle of a fight we don't understand. Fewer people will die, it is true. But we will have traded those deaths for the lives of our own troops. And nothing will have been resolved. The Sudanese government has made it crystal clear they will not allow any foreign military presence on their soil. Unless we are prepared to overthrow the existing government and hand the country over to the rebels, the rebels will not be satisfied with our presence. From their view point we will only be maintaining the status quo, neither advancing their cause, nor hindering it. Any peace we could achieve would be temporary if the underlying issues are not identified and solved. The moment we fail to keep the peace, the fighting will erupt anew, only now both sides will have had time to rest and rearm, eager to make up for lost time.
What are we to do? Were you looking for an answer? I have none. We must make these decisions as the situations require us to. Each conflict is unique and brings its own unique complexities to the table. My heart grieves for the violence and death of the people in Sudan.But, we are powerless to change them and what they want. The rebels want to be free from the oppression of the government. The government wants to the rebels to go away or acquiesce to their rule. The muslims want a muslim state. The non-muslims want religious freedom. Which of these things are in our hands to give?
So, we watch and we wait. We remain vigilant for an opportunity to have a positive impact on the situation. I pray it comes soon.