Now that Israel's war on Lebanon is over, can we please bother to pay attention to a situation that is 15,000 times worse?

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The massacres or even genocide in Darfur, of course, are only part of the Sudanese death toll. The Sudanese civil war which preceded this horror resulted in the deaths of about 1.5 million people. While Israel's attack on Lebanon killed over a thousand people, the mass murder in Sudan is, as my title suggests (if in a cold, mathematical way), 15,000 times worse.

Many people, including myself, have been outraged by the repression and violence doled out by the governments of Iran, Ba'athist Iraq, pre- and post-Taliban Afghanistan, Israel, Turkey, and so on. It's long overdue for some of those people not only to express but to act upon outrage over the Sudanese government's colossal engine of human misery.

Whether as in Sudan's case the crisis is cloaked in Islamism or racialism or regionalism, or as elsewhere it's cloaked in Zionism or Americanism or Maoism or capitalism or Whitesupremacy or patriotism (or combo-platters thereof), the central problem is the same as it always is, everywhere: those who have almost nothing want a little something, and those who have much, much, much more than their share want everything. And the latter will burn to death the former's children to get it.

Democracy Now! reports:

"The Sudanese government has dramatically intensified its attacks in the Darfur region. This comes just days after the United Nations agreed to send in peacekeeping troops. The latest attacks threaten to return the region to a full-blown war. According to the Washington Post, government troops are bombing villages and waging increasing aggressive ground attacks.

"Humanitarian groups have been forced to curtail efforts to distribute food and health care to the region. Aid workers say that in recent weeks, civilian casualties, rapes and looting have all grown more widespread in Darfur. Meanwhile Sudan has threatened to expel 7,000 African Union troops from the region. Sudan has already rejected the UN peacekeeping force. "

TEXT AND AUDIO/VIDEO BACKGROUND LINKS

Darfur Violence Intensifies as Deadline for Withdrawal of AU Peacekeepers Looms
Sudan Rejects UN Proposal for Peacekeeping Force in Darfur as Security Deteriorates
Bush Administration Allied With Sudan Despite Role in Darfur Genocide
Salih Booker of Africa Action appears on the Lehrer Newshour to talk about the UN Report on Darfur
Salih Booker speaks with BlackElectorate.com on the background and the current dynamics of the crisis in Darfur
Justice for Sudan at iFILM.com
University of California votes to divest from Sudan!
Sudan Arrests Two Officials With Doctors Without Borders Following Report of Widespread Rapes in Darfur; CIA Secretly Restores Ties to Sudan Despite Ongoing Human Rights Abuses in Darfur
Chinweizu on Why Afrikans Must Resist Arabisation and Islamisation


UNITED HUMAN RIGHTS.org says:

"TAKE ACTION NOW – There is no time to waste. Act now to stop the Sudan Genocide and the killing of innocent people in Darfur.

protectdarfur.org
darfurgenocide.org
sudandivestment.org
anca.org"

To learn more about mass murder and exploitation in Sudan, visit:
Africa Action
Amnesty International

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