Never again is now

Like the UN, NATO's European members will dither until the "facts on the ground" will have changed such at "Black Africa" Darfur will be like "Polish Jewry."

NATO officials say political sensitivities will probably mean that the alliance's role will - for the time being at least - prevent the dispatch of large numbers of European or North American troops.

They point out that any NATO deployment would need a United Nations request, with backing from Russia, China and the African Union - which has stressed a preference for an African solution to the conflict.

"NATO has not received any formal request from the U.N. or from the African Union for anything beyond what it is currently doing," said NATO spokesman James Appathurai. "NATO is continuing to do what it has been doing for many months, and that is airlifting in and out African Union battalions ... as well as providing training."

Let's face it: the African Union member states cannot even help themselves - not to mention Darfur wit the ROE they have.

Although a high-powered Western force could be more effective militarily, many fear the political fallout - particularly if the mainly Muslim Sudanese government opposes a NATO deployment.

"If we do it through NATO we'll give further encouragement to all those who are condemning the white man and are fueling the clash of civilizations," said Dominique Moisi, deputy director of the French Institute of International Relations. "They will use it against us."

With that top-level guidance, I'll say it now. Sudan has an open season in Darfur. In six months, it won matter any more.

"Let us make sure we do not spread ourselves too much in areas where the competence of other organizations is more obvious," she told a security conference in Germany.

Would they say that if it was happening in Europe?

The United States and several other nations have said genocide has occurred in Darfur. The Arab-dominated government in Khartoum has been accused of backing the Janjaweed militia against civilians in an area where black African rebels revolted in 2003. An estimated 2 million have been forced from their homes.

Well, perhaps you can't save the world. The USA isn't going in their solo. If that is the UN/NATO perspective in what is geographically Europe's South America; then stop saying "Never Again." Never Again already is.

On a side note, if you have TimesSelect, Nicholas Kristof has a great bit up on Darfur. If not, CoalitionForDarfur has copied it all.

For more than two years, the world has pretty much ignored the genocide unfolding in the Darfur region of Sudan, just as it turned away from the slaughter of Armenians, Jews, Cambodians and Rwandans in earlier decades.

And now, apparently encouraged by the world's acquiescence, Sudan is sending its proxy forces to invade neighboring Chad and kill and rape members of the same African tribes that have already been ethnically cleansed in Darfur itself.

Required reading.