Darfur: Highlight the hypocrisy

Ending the catastrophe in Darfur is within our capacity. That gruesome destruction of life needs to end as soon as possible for the sake of all our souls.

It is do-able. We can rejoin the community of nations if we lead NATO in enforcing an end to the atrocities there immediately, not after five more months of slaughter as is currently envisioned.

Darfur stands in stark relief against the quagmire of Iraq. By raising our hand in protection of basic human rights, such as the right to life, we show strength that arises from conviction and correctness and that action does not have to be -- as it is in Iraq -- accompanied by stupidity, coercion and deviousness. Darfur is a crisis where the mission can be clear to our forces and results can be attained.

Raising the profile of this calamity can highlight the hypocrisy of the Bush foreign policy -- American domination focused on oil for the benefit of corporations.

John Edwards, former Democratic candidate for vice president, has an urgent plea out right now. Edwards is the essence of a bleeding heart liberal. His compassion ought to be emulated by us all. You can act through his web site, or at the Save Darfur website, or get deepeer into it at DarfurGenocide.org. A summary of the recent history is available at Human Rights Watch.