When Darfur Rears Its Ugly Head....

... What does Brave Sir Bush do? In the context of Darfur, according to Nicholas Kristof, he won't say a word.

I don't want to be unfair to Bush, though. Where Kristof suggests that it would be ridiculous to invade Sudan to end the genocide in Darfur ("The U.S. is not going to invade Sudan. That's not a plausible option"), and suggest that we can use shame as our exclusive tool, via a speech by Bush at the United Nations - "Governments tend to be embarrassed about exterminating minorities." - Bush and his advisors probably see things a bit differently.

If Bush acknowledges a genocide, makes a high profile statement calling for its immediate end, and then nonetheless permits it to continue, he will risk demonstrating that the putative "Bush Doctrine" is dead in its tracks - how can you claim an interest in democratization, ending internal oppression, increasing regional stability, ending support for terrorism and eliminating its "breeding grounds", when you won't even respond to genocide in Sudan? And I think it is reasonable to believe in this context that words won't be enough. Everybody in the world who wants to know what is happening is already aware, to some degree, of the atrocities which are occurring in Sudan. That is to say, the world's political leaders and opinion shapers have already looked at the situation and have more or less decided to keep it under the radar screen.

While a Bush speech may wake up the American masses who may not yet have learned of Darfur (due primarily to the typically atrocious international news coverage offered by most U.S. media outlets), it seems unlikely to bring in pressure from the rest of the world. So if Bush successfully brings attention to the genocide, brings about a popular demand for ending the genocide, and nothing happens in response... what's the upside for him? (And with all due respect to those in Kristof's "words are enough" camp, I must have missed the historic genocides that were ended merely because a government, not to ashamed to slaughter its own people under the eyes of the world, was embarrassed by a speech given at the U.N.)