The Time to Act in Darfur is Now!

An important article in the Opinion Journal today, written by Don Cheadle who was in the movie Hotel Rwanda, on why we need to act on Darfur.

The articles lists the many excuses for inaction by the American administration. And, if the French can promise to deploy 41,000 police in Paris for the 2012 Olympics, surely they can do more for Darfur.

So what is the real reason why the U.S. has not responded as it should have? The truth is that combating crimes against humanity is simply not considered a national security issue. We don't want to burn our leverage on Sudan in the face of issues such as Iraq, Iran and Syria.

The only antidote to this searing truth--the only way the U.S. will take the kind of leadership necessary to end the horrors for Fatima and her people--is for there to be a political cost to inaction. As American citizens increasingly raise their voices and write their letters about Darfur, the temperature has indeed risen. But not enough. We need to make it a little warmer, a little more uncomfortable for those politicians who would look away. Just a few more degrees. Just a few more thousand letters. It is, frankly, that simple.