Yet Again

What the fuck do we elect these people for anyway? Just to cut our taxes(some people's anyway, not mine), screw up the economy and start unprovoked wars? At some point don't we expect them to do some good even if they are someone with a different political bent than ourselves? Aren't there moral truths? Especially from leaders that tout their religious convictions no matter what side of the aisle they're on?

These are the questions I have when I think about what is going on in Niger and Sudan. In Niger we have a horrible famine and in Sudan we have, by my own government's admission, genocide. And what is Bush doing about it? A whole lot of nothin'. You see, it is important for him to get his rest and cut logs on his five week vacation. It's hard work starting wars and giving taxpayer money to millionaires & oil companies, so he needs his rest. The "War On Tear-err" has him plum tuckered out you know.

I'm sure you all have seen, as I have, the horrible images coming out of Niger on the news. Relief agencies are scrambling and struggling to get food to these people and save their lives, and because of the coverage many more people are volunteering to do what they can to help. These people are heroes to me, as I'm sure just about every other person sees them as well. And I can't even fathom the logistics of trying to get enough food to an African desert to save an estimated 2.5 million people. But you know what could really help them? A really big army with a bunch of really big cargo planes. Hmmmmm, now who has one of those? Oh, that's right, WE DO! And not only that, but this could have been headed off before it even got to emergency status. You know damn well that if you and I are hearing about this now, then our government knew about this a long time ago and chose to do nothing. I guess it is punishment for Niger's attempting to sell to Saddam the materials to make nuclear weapons. Oh wait, that was a lie. Well, maybe it's because our military is too busy spreading "freedom" and "democracy" in the Middle East.

And then there is Sudan. It has been two years now that genocide has been going on in Darfur. The current administration has called it that themselves, so there is no denying what we are dealing with there. And much like the Niger famine, they have done nothing. Not only is doing nothing immoral, but in this case it is also illegal. You see, my country - along with several others - is a signee of a little thing called the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This international treaty was ratified in 1948 in the wake of some little ass-hole who thought it was OK to kill off 11 million Jews, gays, disabled people and other "undesirables" just because he could. And after the smoke cleared the world said "Never Again". So they signed off on the Genocide Convention, which says that it is the duty of every country to prevent genocide when it is identified as happening. But we never have. The Kurds in Iraq and Turkey, Muslims in Bosnia and Serbia, East Timor, Rwanda..........

How many times will we say "never again" before we actually never let it happen again? It's all well and good to have trials for Saddam and Milosevec and the like after it is over, but when will we actually do the "prevent" part of the convention? The crimes committed against the Kurds and Shiites by Saddam are touted a lot as reasons to start the current war, but what were we doing when those things were actually happening? Oh that's right, we were giving him weapons. Back when Iraq was still one of our client states, when these things happened, we just turned our heads and let him do what he wanted. And Rummy, Cheney, and Dubya's daddy were all a part of that. Only when he did something against our economic/oil interests did they decide that Saddam was bad. If they had stopped - instead of helped - him back then, we wouldn't be in this mess today.

And the dumbfuck in the White House now is not the only guilty one. Congress does nothing, and past presidents have their sins as well. Clinton's greatest shame is not a blow job in the oval office, but Rwanda. And I don't give a fuck how many houses Jimmy Carter builds for poor hillbillies in America, how many elections he monitors, or how much he criticizes Bush (though I do love that). It will never be enough to redeem himself for selling weapons to Indonesia, which he knew damn well were for use against the people of East Timor. Something the Nobel committee should have been reminded of before they gave him the Peace Prize. Makes me sick.

I don't think helping to stop genocide and famine is too much to ask of my government. UNICEF can only do so much in Niger, and only an army can stop what is happening in Sudan. My country wants all of the power but none of the responsibility that comes with it. We can't have it both ways.

Bush has taken two breaks from his vacation in Texas (who the hell goes home for a vacation anyway?). Once to sign an energy bill full of tax breaks for oil companies, and the other to sign a transportation bill full of pork projects like a bridge to nowhere in Alaska. No rushing back to Washington to deal with the situations in Niger or Darfur. I guess he had more important things to do. Because, you know, there was a tree on the ranch that needed cutting.