Our president recently proved that while he may be above American law, he isn’t above Godwin’s.

Bush recently dropped the “Islamic fascism” bomb and Rumsfeld stated that those who criticize the way Bush has prosecuted the war on terror – invading and occupying a country that had nothing to do with Sept. 11 – are similar to Nazi appeasers. Comparing your opponents to Nazi sympathizers is the one of the oldest and most desperate of rhetorical tricks, but it also reveals how staggeringly disconnected from reality the Bush administration is.

At the same time our president is equating his program of destabilization of the Middle East with the struggle against Hitler, pushing for war against Iran, and being “not that concerned” about Osama Bin Laden, in Darfur we are confronted with an actual genocide and a situation where if action is not taken, millions of people really will die.

The United States Congress recognized the conflict in Darfur as genocide on Sept. 7, 2004. Most estimates hold that between 400,000 and 450,000 people have died as a result of the conflict since 2003. Currently there is a peacekeeping force of 7,000 African Union troops guarding the Darfur region. This force’s mandate ends on Sept. 30 and they are scheduled to leave Darfur on that day.

Despite the fact that a peace agreement was signed in May, violence in the region is on the rise. The Sudanese government (which, in conjunction with the Janjaweed militias, is responsible for the genocide) is ramping up military action in the region in anticipation for the time the AU troops leave. According to Kofi Annan, violence in the region has already cut off food aid for 350,000 refugees.

There are two and a half million refugees in Darfur. When the AU troops are gone, the aid workers supporting these refugees will be unprotected and will be forced to leave also. When these two things occur, the situation in the Sudan becomes, in the words of Dr. Eric Reeves, a “genocidal black box.” Until a peace force arrives, and at the rate we are going it will arrive conveniently late, there will be no witnesses to the genocide perpetrated by the Sudanese government.

Human beings have an amazing ability to ignore things that ought to bother them (murder, genocide, starvation, the flooding and loss of an entire city) if they believe the situation does not directly threaten them, that the people in danger are ones they don’t particularly care about, or that the situation would require too much of their time or effort to change. A good temporary cure for this condition is to watch Hotel Rwanda or, even better, the documentary Ghosts of Rwanda. Both are available at the University library.

The UN has approved a peacekeeping force of 22,500 for the region but gave the government of Sudan “the ability to veto that, which of course they did,” according to Katie Flamand from Action Darfur, the University of Illinois chapter of STAND (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur). If no other force is present and the AU really abandons the refugees of Darfur, it is game over. The best solution and the one that Action Darfur recommends, says Flamand, is to send a peacekeeping force to the Sudan, “regardless of the Sudanese government’s objections.”

If you have ever wanted to save someone’s life, this is the time to do it. Write to every official that is supposed to represent you and demand they do everything they can to stop this genocide. Write to Durbin, Obama, Johnson, Blagojevich and George W. Bush. Action Darfur is recommending everyone concerned to leave a message for President Bush at 202-456-1111 and to call every day this week.

There will be a teach-in at Allen Hall on Tuesday night at 8 p.m.

If you want any more information, email [email protected].