U.N. Abandons Darfur

The U.N.'s Special Representative in Sudan, Jan Pronk, says that the world should stop trying to get a U.N. mission into Darfur, and should instead focus on bolstering African Union forces on the ground. Which is all well and good, except that if the African Union forces show any sign of being capable of stopping the violence in Darfur, I'm sure they'll find that they are no longer welcome in the region either.

Keep in mind, however, that this is not all Sudan's fault. The Americans and the Brits are guilty of "megaphone diplomacy", according to Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown. He believes that this is not helping one bit, and instead endorses "ineffectual diplomacy", in which you make genocidal regimes feel good about their place in the world so you can get them to attend Very Important Meetings where they announce that there will be violence if your imperialist organisation invades their country. That's the kind of diplomacy that works, and this is why the U.N. has a long history of stopping genocides and other crimes against humanity.