In Which I Play Liberal Internationalist

Before my liberal internationalist friends give themselves strokes or throw their laptops out the window over the latest news on U.S. policy in Sudan, can we get a little perspective?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is prepared to make a quick commitment of $50 million to $60 million to support an expanded African Union peacemaking mission in an effort to halt the violence in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, U.S. officials say.

[...]

The African Union, with strong U.S. encouragement, on Thursday decided to expand its military and police force in Darfur from 3,320 to 7,731 troops by September. The AU also asked NATO for logistical support.

[...]

An official said [the State Department's Sudan expert Mike] Ranneberger came away [from a visit to Darfur] even more impressed with the AU's "very activist approach...They are aggressively getting out into the field and patrolling humanitarian roads."

Now, it's my understanding that liberal internationalists want to be known as such and not as "liberal imperialists."  Fair enough.  But the knee-jerk interventionism of Laura Rozen & Co. on this score is doing just as much to expand American imperialism as is Max Boot and Charles Krauthammer.  Instead of reacting emotionally, we'd do well to think about solutions other than a western invasion.

The African Union has been fairly clamoring, not for US or NATO troops, but for cash and logistical assistance for sometime now.  We should have given it to them a long time ago.  The last I saw, the AU force, in a poetic twist, is led by a contingent from Rwanda.  They have shown every willingness to do the job themselves, but they're short on funds, logistics, and materiel.  We should give it to them.

In this case, we have the ability to devolve our imperial role to a local institution that by all accounts is willing and able to do the job.  Moreover, we have an opportunity to cultivate the AU as an enduring institution that could take up these matters (probably more effectively than we could) if they should emerge again in the future.  We should absolutely seize on this opportunity, and not sneer at the AU's willingness to do the job as somehow insufficient or irrelevant.

Now, some of us were calling for this type of solution a long time ago, and thousands of lives could likely have been saved.  Instead, by incessantly bleating for a Western invasion - which is unacceptable to many Americans and many politicos - some on the left have likely stalled what could have been a good, effective solution some time ago.

Comments

[praktike]

Hmmm ... you may be right. We'll see. Nadezhda is largely in agreement with you on this one. I'm on the fence. Eric and Laura and Brian want to do more.

[nadezhda]

Trackbacks not working, but FWIW here's my endorsement of your thoughts on the AU in Darfur -- and extending it to other conflicts that the African regional organizations are trying to help manage.

http://www.liberalsagainstterrorism.com/drupal/?q=node/977

[Eric Martin]

I could live with most of your recommendations - as long as they got implemented. I'm not married to any particular strategy as much as I think it unacceptable that this crisis continue unchecked and unaddressed. In that sense, I welcome the bipartisan alliance clamoring for action.

Still, there are good arguments for strengthening the AU along the lines of what you're talking about (and what's occurring), so you can throw me in Nadezhda/your corner on this. But at the end of the day, the real test is how well does it stave off the massive killing and unrest.

Not to get all bleeding heart on y'all.

[Justin]

Wow, unity! If you guys aren't careful, you're going to temper my pessimism...

Seriously, I think if we play our cards right, we really have a serious opportunity to do good here -- for the victims in Darfur, for NATO, for the transatlantic alliance, and most importantly, for the future of US foreign policy. The article to which I'd linked indicated the AU forces are doing some good -- there just ain't enough of them, and they don't have all the cool toys they need. Both of those problems appear to be in the process of redress at present. Developing viable African institutions would be a tremendous boost, and even cosmopolitan nationalists like me can appreciate that.

That is, of course, unless the Bushies make a hash of it.

[ajmac]

I am anything but liberal. And I oppose intervention as a general policy. But I think that nothing short of a NATO- or US-led invasion is going to stop Bashir and his thugs. Bashir has been so welcoming of UN and AU troops because he knows that neither organization has the will to do anything.

The longer we go without responding to Bashir's western-imperialism blame game, the more credence we lend to his message. We need at least to make him THINK that we are willing to put our muscle where our mouth is.

[Eddie Beaver]

This is all well and nice if one doesn't realize the Bush Administration is now warming up to Sudan and dumping Darfur as a policy priority.
The will exists in Congress and in the country to take action (to provide the AU with what it wants, to give them diplomatic and political support and cover at the UN and in other world forums, to get America involved perhaps via a no-fly zone), the will in the White House, the CIA and the State Dept. does not.
Fighting and dying for freedom and peace in Iraq and Afghanistan, but supporting radical Islam and genocide in Sudan? This policy shift dishonors our mission, endangers our war on terrorism, and provides a dangerous, disturbing example to dictators all over Africa and the rest of the world.
As one of the many conservatives who supported Pres. Bush on all of his foreign policy objectives, this is highly distressing.

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