KUDOS TO KATZ. Marisa Katz�s contribution to The New Republic�s Darfur issue stands out as the issue's must-read piece. She writes an update of a trend in the Bush administration�s Sudan policy that I identified in the Prospect a year ago. Back then, the administration was hastily working to ensure that the Comprehensive Peace Accord (between the North and South) was implemented. So as not to upset these negotiations, the administration appeased Khartoum in a policy that bore the hallmarks of creeping rapprochement with the regime. Through kid-glove diplomacy and subtle winks and nods, such as upgrading Sudan�s sexual slavery status and granting a waiver to a K Street lobbyist to take Khartoum on as a client, the administration treated the regime in Khartoum as a partner in peace instead of like the criminals that they are. Katz unpacks this policy very thoroughly. To her account of diplomatic fumbles, however, I would also add Robert Zoellick�s first trip to Khartoum, where during a press conference with Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha , he cited an impossibly low mortality toll in Darfur so as not to upset his host. Regardless of this omission, Katz should be congratulated for adding an excellent story that will certainly be a lasting part of the Darfur journalism canon.
--Mark Leon Goldberg
