Bloodthirsty Liberal

Multiple choice question. The smart choice was to:

a) Stay out of Iraq, and stay out of Darfur
b) Go into Iraq, and go into Darfur
c) Go into Iraq, but stay the hell out of Darfur
d) Stay the hell out of Iraq, and blunder into Darfur

I don’t know. I’m more of a “c” guy myself, but maybe none of the of above is a better option.

A large force of rebels stormed an African Union peacekeeping base in Darfur, killing at least a dozen soldiers and wounding several others in the biggest attack on the mission so far, the AU said Sunday.

More than 50 AU peacekeepers and support personnel are missing in action since the attack on the base in northern Darfur just after sunset on Saturday.

…

“There is a war going on between the rebels and the government, and the AU is crunched in the middle,” said a senior AU officer who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

I’m not much more optimistic about UN troops either, should they ever arrive.

The United Nations is attempting to deploy up to 26,000 troops and police to protect civilians in Sudan’s western region, where tens of thousands of people have died and more than 2.5 million have been expelled from their homes.

The U.N. and Khartoum, backed by the African Union, have different views on the composition of the force, with Sudan insisting on an all-African infantry.

…

Ban said he would “leave no stone unturned to end the tragedy in Darfur.”

Most of those would be headstones, I fear.

At least the UN troops would have a welcoming committee:

Al Qaeda urged Sudanese Muslims on Thursday to fight African Union and United Nations peacekeeping troops in Darfur as rebels cast doubt on whether peace talks to pave the way for the force could succeed.

Al Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri called for a holy war on the troops that he said were invading Darfur, and criticized Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for accepting the 26,000-strong joint A.U.-U.N. operation.

Weird Al Zawahiri—I didn’t know you cared.