Heavenly and I attended part of the Rally to Stop the Genocide in Darfur that was held in city Hall Park on Sunday. It started with African Dancing and Drumming and then a survivor of the Holocaust and a survivor of the Bosnian Genocide spoke about their experiences and the need to do something about the current situation in Darfur.
Afterwards, Bernie Sanders and Richard Tarrant spoke and while they both believed that the US is obligated to do something about it, Tarrant differed in that he believes that we need to increase trade with them.
I applaud Tarrant’s approach and belief in increasing trade among the peoples of nations… however, the best way to do this is for the governments to simply get out of the way. Reduce and/or eliminate trade restrictions and tariffs among nations and let the people’s trade freely and unrestricted.
Regarding our government invading Darfur, I find it very ironic that many of the people at this rally are against the Iraq War, but are for starting a similiar war in another country based on some of the same reasons used to justify our war in Iraq. Even Bernie Sanders said that he would like to move our current troops from Iraq to Darfur. The only difference I see between the Iraq war and a possible Darfur war is that the Iraq War was started by Republicans and the Darfur war is be instigated by Democrats. It just seems purely political to me.
June 20, 2006 @ 12:00 am
There is no talk of a military invasion, at least none that in any way resembles Iraq. It would be a humanitarian mission, and any military troops would just be there as peace-keepers.
July 23, 2006 @ 12:00 am
Hooray for humanitarianism and the self-righteous sentimentalism and emotional indulgence it inculcates! If a future intervention into Darfur ends up the way Clinton’s humanitarian missions into Mogadishu and the Balkans, then I would say it will be a stunning success.