Another brief topic of conversation at dinner last night was Darfur and the rhetorical question was asked as to whether we shouldn't be there instead of Iraq? I of course suggested that even of the Democrats were in charge we wouldn't be stopping the killing, although I didn't make the suggestion that the Bush administration or Congress was doing all they could.

So, I asked myself, what are the Republicans doing, and are the Democrats in line, opposed or helpless to respond? Do they not bother bringing it up because of our situtation in Iraq and know that nothing more can be done as long as we're "stretched thin" or have lost our "moral authority"?

First, about the situtation - Wikipedia has a long background entry. As with many political items, perhaps some of the information needs to be taken with a grain of salt. That being said, it's seems too frickin' complicated.  Sunnis and Shia and Kurds speaking Arabic in a population of 27 million I can understand.  Many more tribes speaking

• Arabic, particularly south of Nyala and in the east, but also touching the Chad border in a narrow strip north of Jebel Si, between Fur and Zaghawa;


• Beigo, or Baygo, in a small area south of Nyala (this language, closely related to Daju, is also extinct).


• Daju, in a small pocket near Nyala (of the Western branch of the Eastern Sudanic group of Nilo-Saharan);


• Erenga, north of Geneina and across the border in Chad (considered a dialect of Tama);


• Fongoro, south of Sinyar (also a Bongo-Bagirmi language, nearly extinct; its speakers have shifted to Fur);


• Fulbe, or Fulfulde, in a small area south of Nyala;


• Fur, in the center, from Wadi Azum in the west to Al Fasher in the east (belonging to the Fur language group of Nilo-Saharan);


• Kujarge, south of Sinyar (unclassified);


• Masalit, west of Wadi Azum and around Geneina; also spoken across the border, and in a small isolated area south of Nyala (belonging to the Maban language group of Nilo-Saharan);


• Sinyar, along the border south of Masalit (a Bongo-Bagirmi language of the Central Sudanic group of Nilo-Saharan);


• Tama, in a small pocket between Jebel Si and Jebel Marra (also of the Western branch of the Eastern Sudanic group of Nilo-Saharan);


• Zaghawa, in the north (an Eastern Saharan language);

in a population of 8 million, is too much for my brain.
I know that there has been some additional focus in the Jewish community recently with petitions to sign etc., but I'm not so sure that anyone really understands the issue completely.  Just because one group of peoples is killing another group of peoples doesn't necessarily mean that it's easy to take sides. 

As tragic as the situation is, and I don't want to seem callous, I think comparisons to the Holocuast or even Rwanda are overblown.  We all know the Holocaust stats and in Rwanda, 800,000 died in a matter of months.  So far, it seems that about 200,000(?) people have died after three years of fighting in Darfur.  Maybe it's the "slow genocide" that makes it seem so relatively non-urgent. 

After that little bit of research, I don't feel like getting into the politics.  It seems that working through the UN probably is the only reasonable course of action, as poor of an option as that is.  I fully support the legislation going through Congress now to provide additional sanctions against the Sudanese government and support for the African Union troops.