A fair question. I did with hesitation support the invasion of Afghanistan, and I’m not certain it was the right decision. In retrospect I think it was of vital importance to push Iraq out of Kuwait, though I opposed the action at the time. I would have supported the WWII effort.

I think I would support international military intervention in Darfur. I have to agree with Eric Reeves as he expressed it in Dissent Magazine. It’s happening again.

We have seen all of this—or at least we might have. Certainly all the international actors of consequence know what is occurring in Darfur—and have responded weakly and irresolutely. As a direct consequence, what long ago became primarily “genocide by attrition” will continue indefinitely. Hundreds of thousands of people will die among the almost four million human beings the UN now defines as “conflict-affected” and in need of humanitarian assistance.

That Darfur’s genocide has been so conspicuously visible, and has generated so little willingness to undertake international action, makes for its own terrible history lesson—and casts a grim retrospective light on international failures to prevent genocide over the past century.

In truth, I haven’t followed the story – mostly because I find it overwhelming and it makes the Mateel/PP feud, the Arkley wars, and even the recent election battle for the Senate seem exercises in futility. It’ll resolve itself in a decade or so, and once again we’ll all scream “never again” knowing that we don’t really mean it.

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