Use American influence to end genocide

Public concern and conversation following President Bush's State of the Union Address Jan. 31 has focused on the methodology of how we might save ourselves from our fossil fuel lifeline, but the president also said America needs to "act confidently in pursuing the enemies of freedom." He was, of course, referring to Islamic terrorists, Iraqi insurgents and the government of Iran. \n"The only way to protect our people, the only way to secure the peace, the only way to control our destiny is by our leadership," Bush said. "Abroad, our nation is committed to an historic, long-term goal: We seek the end of tyranny in our world."\nOne down -- former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein -- with an entire world of tyrannical individuals and groups still left to conquer. Thank God America doesn't have to look far. We can continue our "end to tyranny" campaign by supporting United Nations efforts with both money and American peacekeepers to stop the daily genocide of our global neighbors in Darfur, Sudan, by the government-supported Janjaweed militias.\nInternational activists like the Human Rights Watch and New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof have documented the rape, mutilation, torture and murder of millions of Sudanese at the hands of the \nJanjaweed.\n"President Bush should make it clear that the U.S. will provide the necessary support for a U.N. mission in Darfur. And he should call on other countries to do the same," Africa Human Rights Watch director Peter Takirambudde said in a Feb. 10 release. "The United States should push for the strongest possible U.N. mandate to disarm the Janjaweed militias and protect civilians, using deadly force if necessary."\nKristof has even asked readers to conjure the image of babies being thrown into bon fires. Hussein, if one were to compare the amount of murderous "tyranny," is on trial for ordering the killing of 150 Shiites among other international crimes like the murder of thousands more Iraqis following a 1982 assassination attempt. \nBesides the liberation of dozens of concentration camps strewn across Europe during World War II, the United States' record on defeating genocide is dismal if not down right pathetic. America sat with her hands in her lap as the government of Bosnia ordered the Bosnian military to murder thousands of Muslims in 1992. We also did not intervene in 1994 as the Hutus systematically slaughtered more than 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda.\nAnd in Congo, more than 3 million of our global neighbors have died, many by mass murder, in a brutal three-year civil war. These genocidal conflicts are but the tip of the international mass murder iceberg. \nThank God that Bush said America is willing to truly battle tyranny abroad in the hope of spreading liberty, freedom and democracy, because the road map of genocide is already covered in the blood of millions of broken dreams.\nThe president declared: "In this decisive year, you and I will make choices that determine both the future and the character of our country."\nMight America choose to roll up its sleeves to defeat global genocide?