Nothing like a genocide to really bring us Arabs together!

"Often Split Arab Leaders Unite for Sudan's Chief".

I wonder if they think about the fact that Omar Beshir has slaughtered hundreds of thousands of citizens and displaced millions. (And, not that that it should matter, that the people he massacred are of Arab descent and predominantly Muslims?) Really great name for the Arabs and the region.

Do you think it went something like this:

Assad: Did you hear about Darfur?
Abbas: Yes!! Terrible isn't it, we really need to stick behind Beshir.
Mubarak (if he had been there): Yes, the persecution of the Arabs proceeds!!
Observer: Wait, you mean of Arabs in Darfur or Beshir??
Assad, Abbas, Mubarak: uhhhhhhh

It's just so disappointing (not surprising though unfortunately) that Arab leaders are embracing Sudanese president Omar Beshir at the Arab League in Qatar.

Excellent new book about Darfur (&COIN criticism??)

This is an informative (about the book and about Darfur) review of a new book by Mahmoud Mamdani, Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics and the War on Terror.

I am not tooting my own horn, but from the review, I am proud to say that the causes of the conflict he lists in the book (toward the end of the review) are the same as those I argued for in my thesis which was entitled "Genocide in Darfur: Economic Degradation, State-building and Ethnic Politics"

I will expand more on the causes of the conflict in Darfur at a later time bc it is late and I am busy with work stuff. But I have been wanting to do a posting on it for a while and this book is motivating me.

Understanding Darfur is crucial bc it so reflects many of the problems of the region - hollow ethnic politics, the nation state, exclusive governance, resource based conflicts. And of course it was veiled as an Arab v. African conflict which couldn't be further from the truth. Everyone there is Arab and African, and more importantly no one there identified themselves in ethnic terms. (Parallel here to Iraq and that the conflict there was never about Sunni and Shii hatred.)

I was particularly intrigued by the following claim:

"At his most provocative Mr. Mamdani questions the distinction between what is often labeled counterinsurgency and genocide, saying the former, even when it kills more people, is deemed “normal violence” while the latter is considered “amoral, evil,” and typically it is the West that does the labeling.

I wonder what Abu Muqawama and his fellow COIN (counterinsurgency) experts at CNAS (Center for New American Security) would think of this?

COIN (counterinsurgency) has become the fad of the day (I don't mean that in a bad way) - even for liberals, some academics, and development/ aid workers who need the security it is believed to be able to provide to do their work. Also, COIN methodology is humanitarian in the sense that its ultimate and only goal really is to protect the local population and pick/ rescue the good guys (David Kilcullen's 'accidental guerrillas') (see below) from the bad guys' (AQ, Taliban) troops.

Looking to know more about COIN? Here are some resources for starters: (list will grow)
Abu Muqawama (Andrew Exum) blog (includes a reading list)
CNAS
Small Wars Journal
Read David Galula Counterinsurgency:Theory and Practice (written by French officer with experience in Algeria, Greece, SE Asia...) and Pacification in Algeria
Read David Kilcullen's 28 Articles: Fundamentals of Company Level COIN (link to the pdf)
Read Kilcullen's Accidental Guerrilla
Read Army/USMC COIN Field Manual

Where's the Muslim Outrage Over Darfur???

Thank you Ahmet Alibasic! This is exactly what I've been trying to say!

Sudaese President Omar Bashir has killed hundred of thousands of Muslims in Darfur, sending more to refugee camps, even burning mosques!

Great op-ed in WSJ from a Bosnian Muslim on this.

Again, it's not about religion.

Darfur and Beshir's ICC arrest warrant

While I am a firm believer that a country and a people can only move forward if those responsible for genocide and violence and perpetrating civil war and conflict are brought to justice, this justice must be timed to minimize civilian casualties and maximize effectiveness. I do not think this was the best time for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue a warrant for Sudanese President Omar Beshir's arrest.

(This, by the way, comes from a humanitarian, someone who wrote their Thesis on the history of Darfur - showing that the conflict was based on resources due to desertification rather than 'Arab' and 'African animosities. But I am also, as I said above, a firm believer that justice brings lasting peace.)

Truth and Reconciliation commissions in South Africa and Rwanda and Liberia and Sierra Leone have been helpful in improving relations among former warring parties. After conflicts end (or toward the end) in these countries, and when other nations can secure the safety of civilians, arrest warrants for war criminals are also effective and necessary.

There have been a boatload of great op eds on this - an interesting one today from Nicholas Kristof who is fearful of the humanitarian outcome of the warrant as aid agencies are kicked out of Darfur - leaving 100s of thousands vulnerable to disease and without access to water and food.
He also mentions that no one he spoke to in the camps a week ago favored a delay in ICC proceedings.

He echos General Merrill McPeaks advocacy in an oped in in the Wash Post last week for a no fly zone in Darfur.

The worst thing about Darfur is to read that other Muslims (Sudanese Muslims out in the streets supporting Beshir, Hamas citicizing the warrant) speak out against this warrant as another western imperialist strategy in the region. Beshir and his cabal have killed thousands of MUSLIMS in Darfur.