Excellent editorial in the New York Sun about the double standard on display by the left and their cronies in Hollywood recently over Darfur:
We’d be remiss, however, if we didn’t say that we also hope that the Darfur rally yesterday helps to illuminate the hypocrisy of some of those on the left. They want military action now to oppose a genocidal regime in Sudan and to protect its victims. Yet they opposed military action in Iraq to oust a regime, in that of Saddam Hussein, that had engaged in ethnic cleansing of Iraqi Kurds and Shiites and had rained scud missiles on Israeli cities.
This Darfur double standard was underscored by the list of announced speakers for yesterday’s “Save Darfur” rally. They included at least three members of Congress – Nancy Pelosi, Donald Payne, and Michael Capuano – who voted against the liberation of Iraq. Mr. Payne, a Democrat of New Jersey, has reportedly gone so far as to say of the Iraq war, “I have never seen such a misuse of our power.” Ms. Pelosi, a Californian who is the Democratic leader in the House, has endorsed Rep. John Murtha’s demand for an immediate American withdrawal from Iraq.
The scheduled speakers at yesterday’s Save Darfur rally also included the Reverend Al Sharpton and the Democrat who lost in 1997 to Mayor Giuliani, Ruth Messinger. Rev. Sharpton and Ms. Messinger have marched against the Iraq war in New York behind the banner of United for Peace and Justice, an anti-Israel front group whose steering committee includes a representative of the Communist Party USA.
Just to underscore the double standard, Rev. Sharpton reportedly marched against the Iraq war in New York on Saturday, then marched in Washington on Sunday for more intervention in Sudan. Even worse, the Saturday march was organized by United for Peace and Justice, which has moved well beyond opposing the Iraq war. It now opposes any American action against Iran. “United for Peace and Justice opposes any military action against Iran, as well as covert action and sanctions,” the organization’s Web site says. The site includes letters for activists to send to Congress, saying, “Iran does not present a threat to the United States” and calling for taking away Israel’s nuclear weapons.
[…]Mr. Bush is way ahead of the leftist Darfur advocates because he supports freedom and democracy and opposes terrorism everywhere – not only in Darfur, but also in Iraq and Iran and Israel. He understands that Iran’s tyrants, Sudan’s regime, and Saddam Hussein are of a type. Before Mr. Bush met with the Darfur activists Friday, he met in the Oval office with a group of defectors from North Korea in what he called “one of the most moving meetings since I’ve been the president.”
Consistency is important here, all the more so because the Holocaust is invoked by so many of the Save Darfur protesters. Those who saw the destruction of European Jewry by the Nazis are moved to prevent the further destruction of the Darfurians by the Sudanese. As well they should be. But when the Holocaust is invoked to protect Africans by those who counsel inaction, retreat, or disarmament when Israelis and Americans are threatened or attacked, one wonders about a double standard.
It’s wonderful and encouraging that tens of thousands turned out to support action in Darfur yesterday and to protest the Sudanese regime. But when one considers that a similar rally against the Iranian president’s vow to wipe Israel off the map attracted but a few hundred participants, it’s unnerving. Perhaps, as our Benny Avni writes elsewhere in today’s Sun, the American victory at the U.N. Security Council on Darfur will pave the way for a similar victory over Iran. For international crisis intervention need not be an either-or proposition. Opposing the war in Iraq while favoring an intervention in Sudan is akin to the position of an American during World War II who favored fighting Japan but taking a strictly pacifist stance toward Germany. It’s so illogical as to make one wonder why.
The hypocrisy is mindboggling. Do they now want the US to invade the Darfur? Or do they really believe the corrupt and useless UN will do anything? In a word, yes.
The left believes the solution to this whole problem is to pressure the US to give even MORE aid to the African Union peacekeepers and to lobby the big bad UN.
Sure, that’s the ticket.
The AU is composed of many Arab members who have stopped the organization from doing anything for years. The UN has proven itself to be a tiger with no claws. They can discuss things, that’s for sure. They get a A+ for talking. They can even warn countries. But the world looks at this organization as the mother who continually tells her children “you better stop that, or else!” and never does a thing to punish the child. No one is afraid of the UN.
So how about NATO? No way. The European members are so timid and afraid of their Muslim citizens they will not touch this with a 10 foot pole.
The only thing that will solve this problem is American might.
But the left still doesn’t get that. They didn’t with another tyrant in Saddam, they don’t with an obviously out of control Iranian government, and they won’t with the Sudan.
They want this nation to be “defensive” only.
I feel sorry for the victims of the Darfur because this mindset will guarantee that nothing gets done to save them.
The only thing that will solve this problem is American might.
But the left still doesn’t get that. They didn’t with another tyrant in Saddam, they don’t with an obviously out of control Iranian government, and they won’t with the Sudan.
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