Drew Sheneman, in the Newark Star Ledger.
Funny, but not entirely true. Andrew Natsios and USAID have done a good job of keeping an eye on Sudan – USAID has just released a set of satellite photos that provide an interesting perspective on the destruction. And Colin Powell is now enroute to Khartoum to put pressure on the Sudanese government.
Africa Action makes the argument that Powell’s trip is “dangerously naive”, and that there’s no reasonable way to negotiate with a genocidal regime. They argue that the US should declare the situation “genocide”, use intelligence techniques (presumably like the ones USAID is using) to monitor the situation, and deploy peacekeepers from Dijbouti to Darfur to stabilize the situation.
I doubt Powell is actually naive enough to believe most of what the Khartoum government has to say. I take it as a positive sign that the Bush administration is paying sufficient attention to Sudan to send the secretary of state on a mission. But I think it’s extremely unlikely that the US will intervene in the conflict.