EDWARDS ON DARFUR. John Edwards issued a pretty solid plan for addressing the Darfur crisis yesterday. If enacted, it would mark a significant departure from the current administration's go-easy approach. (Which, if you hadn't noticed, is failing miserably.)
The Edwards plan is to basically use the full weight of American diplomacy to press Khartoum into accepting UN peacekeepers. Nearly four years after Secretary of State Powell determined that the killings in Darfur amounted to genocide, this is still something that the Administration is reluctant to do. Edwards, however, would actually back up tough talk by imposing long-threatened American sanctions on companies owned or controlled by the Sudanese government and carving out a real role for NATO in Darfur, including enforcing a no-fly zone and providing crucial support to an eventual UN mission in Darfur.
My only quibble is that Edwards describes the UN deployment to Darfur as "two-phased," when in fact there are three. The first, a so called "light support package" to help the 7,000 African Union troops in Darfur, is already deployed. And two weeks ago, Khartoum agreed to phase two -- the "heavy support package" -- which seeks an additional 3,000 blue helmets plus heavy equipment like military helicopters to support the African Union. The real goal, however, is to use the diplomatic tools Edwards recommends to force Khartoum to accede to a robust UN force of 17,000 to 22,000 troops, which was authorized by the Security Council last August.
There is only so much security that an additional deployment of 3,000 blue-helmets can provide. Getting that larger deployment on the ground in Darfur should be the real focus of American diplomacy. The heavy support package is merely an intermediate step.
--Mark Leon Goldberg
