Darfur

Our regular contributor DP sent me this link to a website that has drawings made by children who were apparently under the care of Human Rights Watch in darfur:

On mission along the border of Chad and Darfur, Human Rights Watch researchers gave children notebooks and crayons to keep them occupied while they spoke with the children’s parents. Without any instruction or guidance, the children drew scenes from their experiences of the war in Darfur: the attacks by the Janjaweed, the bombings by Sudanese government forces, the shootings, the burning of entire villages, and the flight to Chad.

The one I've put up here is one of the best drawings I could find, some of the drawings are much more graphic.

So what can be done? Do we stand by and feel pity for these people, leaving them to their fate? Do we shake our heads and click our tongues at the train wreck that the continent of Africa has become? Do we invade Sudan and hope it works out better than the bloody mess in Iraq?

Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager who saved hundreds from death by machete in Rawanda, was in New York last weekend urging the UN to take some action in Darfur.

I watched "Hotel Rwanda," and like most people, I hoped that I would have the courage to act as he did if I found myself in that position. But I don't, and neither do you. We sit here in Hotel America, completely safe from janjaweed militiamen and Sudanese airplanes, and I see the drawings made by children who's parents were murdered, raped, and hacked to pieces, and I write a little editorial about it and go to bed, safe in Hotel America. Tomorrow, the people on TV and radio will complain about letting too many poor foreigners into our lovely hotel, as they've been doing for weeks.

I can't help but wonder if we'd have stopped the whole thing already if the entire US military wasn't so busy.