this just b---it u damn americans are real bastards and who supply south sudan with weapons and partition u AMERICANS did those sort of things and now u blame China! u guys really know how to play games and exploit your people and other people around the world ... well done AMERICANS

Does Sudan really need more celebrities ?

is afia not enough ?

http://fr.truveo.com/Afia-Hassan-Final-Cut/id/3848047897

who said there are no good artists in Soudan ;-)

enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6p63A32u2c&feature=related

Looks like quite a few people took the bait, and went and made the faulty comparison to Iraq! Of course, even a superficial look at both situations reveals huge differences. This not mentioning that the cartoon simply suggests going after Omar al-Bashir, nothing about (nonexistent) WMDs, or "spreading democracy," or building permanent bases, or leaving so much as one soldier behind once the job is done. Heck, the use of the COPS motif pretty much screams "police action"!

The big difference, of course, is that while the massacres in Sudan are ongoing, the incident in Iraq had been the distant past as of 2003, mostly products of the late 1980s. People forget just how wrecked the Iraqi military was after the Gulf War in 1991, something further compounded by the embargo afterward. Saddam had become so unable to put down rebellions within his own nation, the Kurds had effectively declared independence by 1995, with no fear of retribution! There should be no doubt the Shi'ites were next. Either way, the situation was clearly stable, to the point where only a foolish foreign invasion would turn things topsy-turvy. That's life, apparently.

Perhaps failing to see such obvious differences is how horrible foreign policy mistakes are made.

"The north-south agreement will face more trouble and the same thing will happen to a peace deal with Darfur. The rebel movements in Darfur will continue to destabilize the Darfur region, harming an already troubled government, and perhaps reigniting another civil war,...The situation in Sudan will be a lot more difficult to deal with on all levels and the country will become increasingly unstable in the coming months,"(Source: Al Jazeera)
-Badri Shafai:Egyptian expert on African affairs

"Rebel movements in Darfur will have no incentive to negotiate with a government whose leader is indicted, because if they do issue an arrest warrant, Bashir will lose his legitimacy as a leader and as an effective role player in solving Sudan's problems."
-Safwat Fanous, political analyst in Khartoum

"Failure now could lead to the sort of breakdown seen in Darfur, and time and opportunities are running out...the changes must reduce the tensions between the centre and the periphery, and to do this they must address the need for a fairer division of wealth and power."(Source: Chatham House UK-based think tank)
-Edward Thomas

"When this warrant comes, it is, for us, the end of Bashir's legitimacy to be president of Sudan...We will work hard to bring him down ... If he doesn't cooperate with the ICC, the war will intensify," -Khalil Ibrahim, the JEM leader

"Every time a new round of negotiations is announced or conflicting parties get close to meeting at the negotiation table, the timings of the UN Security Council always come to obstruct and hinder on going peace efforts,"(Source: Al Jazeera)
-Ahmed Haroun, Sudan's minister of humanitarian affairs

"The problem for international policymakers is that the prosecutor's legal strategy also poses major risks for the fragile peace and security environment in Sudan, with a real chance of greatly increasing the suffering of very large numbers of its people," -Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG)

"I've seen more than 400 complaints that have been submitted to the ICC concerning crimes in Gaza and the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Ocampo has made it very clear that he will not pursue an investigation in any one of these cases...If it were the case, then the ICC would have ordered an indictment for former President Bush and his cohorts for waging war against Iraq and Afghanistan and for the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo."

- Abdullah Ashaal, an Egyptian expert on international law

"Nevertheless, the US refuses to negotiate with the Islamic governance in Sudan, and watching the country collapse would allow Washington to change the country's political landscape."
-Safwat Fanous, political analyst in Khartoum

"This was a great cartoon. The person in the car reminds me how the rest of the world just sits there and watches all these people get destroyed. I hope that some nation or nations stops this man."

I agree, but now you and I too are just sitting around and watching this political cartoon to feel better about ourselves "hoping somebody stops him". Do you want to go over there, or want to see a family member go and fight a war against Sudan,? Because I think everyone knows that would be the only way he would stop.

Z SAID:It's too bad for the poor Dafurians that there's no oil under their sand, eh gang?

Chad, one of Sudan's neighbors, is an integral part of the Darfur problem. Chadian President Idriss Deby came to power through a military coup launched from Darfur in 1990 with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) he is now repaying his debts with arms financed by oil money.

*JEM: founded by Darfurians led by (Khalil Ibrahim), is drawn mostly from among former supporters of Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi. He was a partner in President Omar al-Bashir's 1989 coup against Sadeq al-Mahdi's elected government. Many Darfurians distrust Khalil Ibrahim because of his Islamist past and suspect he is focused on political power in Khartoum for his clan.

Chad's government is largely dependent on the sale of oil, not to China but to an Exxon Mobil-led international consortium. Remarkably, the World Bank played the key role in turning Chad into an oil-producing country. Exxon Mobil had made World Bank participation a precondition for launching its $4.2-billion oil project, an insurance policy for its investments in this politically volatile region. Once the World Bank approved co-financing for the project in 2000, other lenders, such as the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the European Investment Bank, followed suit.

At the same time, Deby himself is fighting armed rebel movements operating from this region, some of which are supported by Sudan. led by former members of Deby's inner circle, including his nephew, Timan Erdimi. Erdimi decided to take up arms after his uncle abolished presidential term limits in Chad's Constitution in 2005, setting himself up to become president for life. The control over oil revenues looms large in this internal power struggle -- and in Darfur.

"The Americans say that ... as long as the oil is flowing, then everything else is not their affair," Erdimi said.

It's too bad for the poor Dafurians that there's no oil under their sand, eh gang?

It's not that I'm trying to say that this guy isn't guilty. Most likely his crimes are understated. But if this guy deserves to be hung at the Hague, then what about the American/German/French/Chinese/etc gun runners who sold him the weapons to do the job? What about the IMF that supplies the dollars?

Why isn't Obama making some noise about this?
He wants to cozy-up to the Taliban and - all the while - this situation (and that in the Congo) continues, with the death-tolls just going higher and higher.
Why not even a MENTION of this genocide?

Yeah,this has been going on for years.What's the hurry right?A few hundred thousand deaths and thousands of rapes,but it's only Africa so no one really cares. Ed P.

He should hold up the haliburton receipt...

Time to organize a committee to study the problem.... give it a few years, the situation should resolve itself. He could die (of old age!)...

What's this? A murderous dictator in an Islamic country? One who has committed no crimes against America or American citizens? And Mr. Fiore pointing out that Uncle Sam should go in and preemptively wipe al-Bashir's sorry butt off this mortal plain?

Where will the money come from? Who knows.

Is there an exit plan? Nope.

Would US troops be stationed in Darfur for years and years to keep the peace? Quagmire 2.0? Certainly.

Flag-draped coffins, extended tours of duty, paramilitary organizations like Blackwater (or whatever their new lil' happy logo is now)? You bet!

Let's look at the glass half full here. Think of it as a catharsis. Millions from one tribe are wiped out to make way for another. The hard-core Darwinists should be jumping for joy. Al-Bashir is natural selection at its finest: the extirpation of the weak by the militarily strong. Of course, I personally think there might be more to life than natural selection and ends-justifying-the-means, but who cares about moral absolutes anymore?

Nossir, we know better. You've pointed out to us many times how going into Iraq was a clear mistake. Let nature run its course--let the weak be exterminated--the al-Bashirs of the world elevated to their rightful status at the top of the pyramid.

I don't understand you, Mr. Fiore. Either you support preemptively invading a country when the international community sits on their hands, or you don't. You can't have your bloodbath and condemn it too. If it helps ease the suffering, just imagine this to be a parallel reality where Darfur is the Iraq that Bush didn't invade in 2003. The babies thrown on fires are Shiites being thrown into mass graves. The hundred thousand dead farmers are a hundred thousand dead Kurds.

Or, the other way around. Imagine that Bush had invaded Darfur in 2003. At this point, you'd be desperate for the troops to pull out because you've run up 3 trillion dollars of unserviceable debt and things were pretty much better off under al-Bashir.

Either way, you'd probably be less confused about whether or not America should jump into the middle of Muslims killing each other.

Thanks for the toon, at any rate.

- An Extremely Confused COTO

Very true and good point.

Ilove this cartoon Mark. Why doesn't the world court do something about this mess. The person in the car remaid me of nations that just sit and watch people get hurt and that.

the problem is that unless they decide it actively "remove" him there isn't much else that they can do ....

Brilliant!!!!

Wonder what those cops are reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan ? «Incendiary devices from aircraft», possibly ? Any «bloodthirsty neighbourhood character[s]» in those areas ? Not to worry, the lessons learned in Southwest and Central Asia should be equally applicable to East Africa - all problems can be resolved by a «coalition of the willing», which remakes the map of the area....

Henri

This is one of the most horrible things you've heard me talk about. I hope the rest of the world decides to do something about this. Of course Obama is so consumed with the economy, Iraq, Afghanistan and everything else that I doubt he can do anything about it.

U.N. = un
un-willing to do anything about Darfur
un-able to get food to the starving

this is one situation where you ask, what can we do (as a simple person trying to scratch out a life)?

I think the only thing that will save Darfur right now is if they find a huge oil reserve there.

- SPT

Very good! This cartoon shows perfectly the extent to which the UN has no teeth (or does not want to bare its fangs, out of fear of trespassing or not doing things right when it comes to international law) when it comes to genocide. The UN officially accused al-Bashir of crimes against humanity, but how can they bring him in front of a judge?

This was a great cartoon. The person in the car remaind me how the rest of the world just sits there and watches all these people get destory. I hope thar some narion or nations stops this man.

COPS Darfur is up and running. See how we're showing that Omar al-Bashir who's boss!

Enjoy, comment, and check out the "Do Something" links below the animation.

-Mark