Blaming Bush for U.N. Inaction in Darfur
State Department-beat reporter Helene Cooper, typically unsympathetic to U.S. involvement in foreign interventions, apparently has carved out an exception for Sudan, a cause celebre for liberals who favor U.S. or U.N. action in order to stop the slaughter.
But Cooper's anti-administration slantremains consistent. In Wednesday's "U.S. Sends (Another) Warning on Darfur," Cooper mactually anaged to blame Bush for the United Nations' inaction.
"But Bush administration officials have promised action before and come up short. On Aug. 31 last year, Jendayi Frazer, the State Department's top Africa official, after meeting with Sudanese government officials, said she was "very confident that ultimately they will accept" the international peacekeeping force. Two weeks later, on Sept. 19, President Bush gave his speech at the General Assembly.
"'If the Sudanese government does not approve the peacekeeping force quickly, the U.N. must act,' he said.
"A week later, in a speech, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that if the Sudanese government 'continues waging war against its own citizens, challenging the African Union, undermining the peacekeeping force, and threatening the international community, then the regime in Khartoum will be held responsible, and it alone will bear the consequences of its actions.'
"Now, more than six months later, there is still no United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur."
Read between the highlighted terms, and it's clear that it's the United Nations that has "come up short," not the Bush administration, as Cooper claimed.
