Darfur fault found

Nicholas Kristof has enclosed photos of Darfur victims in today's opinion piece in which he's looking to lay the blame:

Photos don't normally appear on this page. But it's time for all of us to look squarely at the victims of our indifference.

So what can stop this genocide? At one level the answer is technical: sanctions against Sudan, a no-fly zone, a freeze of Sudanese officials' assets, prosecution of the killers by the International Criminal Court, a team effort by African and Arab countries to pressure Sudan, and an international force of African troops with financing and logistical support from the West.

But that's the narrow answer. What will really stop this genocide is indignation. Senator Paul Simon, who died in 2003, said after the Rwandan genocide, "If every member of the House and Senate had received 100 letters from people back home saying we have to do something about Rwanda, when the crisis was first developing, then I think the response would have been different."

Why doesn't the UN get a mention, not even in passing? You know, the world organization set up to handle just such situations? Hasn't it been the US rocking the boat on Darfur?, the UN responding with an investigation that concluded genocidal intent but no genocide. And now the responsibility has been passed to the American public.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for napalming – or whatever - the government and its thugs back to the stone age - or beyond - but if the events in Darfur can't even make it onto the Sercurity Council agenda, why should the problem be passed to the American public? I mean really, what are the chances the simpletons who elected Bush have ever even heard of Sudan, much less want to get all indignant about the deaths of some black Africans. Or, was that really the point Kristof was trying to make?