Genocide and the Darfur insurgency

NY Times Editorial:

In January, President Bush said this about Darfur: “My administration called this genocide. Once you label it genocide, you obviously have to do something about it.”

Yet, last week — nearly one year later — this is what the International Criminal Court prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, told the United Nations Security Council about Darfur: “Genocide continues. Rapes in and around the camps continue. Humanitarian assistance is still hindered. More than 5,000 displaced persons die each month.” How can this still be?

The world has long declared its revulsion at the atrocities committed by Sudan’s government and its proxy militias in Darfur and done almost nothing to stop it. It took years of political wrangling to get the Security Council to approve a strengthened peacekeeping force with deployment set for Jan. 1. More than 11 months later, the Security Council has managed to send only 10,000 of the promised 26,000 peacekeepers. Large-scale military attacks against populated areas continue.

Much of the fault lies with Sudan’s cynically obstructionist president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. But Russia and especially China — which has major oil interests in Sudan — have shamefully enabled him. So have African leaders. The United States and its allies also bear responsibility for temporizing, most recently over how to transport troops and equipment to the conflict zone.

President Bush said on Wednesday that the United States was prepared to provide airlift. So why has this taken so long?

...

I suspect the time was consumed in putting together a force to airlift.

The problems in Darfur flow from Sudan's inept counterinsurgency strategy. Insurgencies cause special problems for a military responding to them. Successful counterinsurgency strategy such as the one the Bush administration used in Iraq recognize that the people are the booty in a war of insurgency and they need to be protected.

The Sundanese see the people as the problem and therefore, they set out to eliminate them. It is too late to unwind this failed counterinsurgency operation in Darfur and the Sudan government must be held responsible for its conduct, but it is not too late to see the importance of an effective counterinsurgency strategy.

That has been the mistake of the anti war left in this country, which seems to think the only thing to do in the face of an insurgency is retreat. But a good counterinsurgency strategy is more humane in the long run and will also mean fewer wars of insurgency.