Sudan

Upon learning that the United States had not ratified the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Senator William Proxmire stood up on the floor of the United States Senate in 1967, pledging to give a speech a day until it was ratified. After 3,211 speeches, the Convention was ratified in 1986.

With prodding from Senator Proxmire, it took the United States Senate about 35 years to outlaw genocide in the world and agree to stop it wherever it may occur. While President Bush has not properly responded to the genocide in Darfur, he is hardly the only guilty party, as President Clinton acted slowly in Bosnia and failed to act in Rwanda.

While one must understand the need to restrain American power in order to prevent the rest of the world from fearing American power, America has no real interests in the Sudan, short of searching an area Bin Ladin once called home. However, there is in interest that is greater than national interest; that interest is moral interest.

The intent of the Genocide Convention was not for international powers to wait until the number of victims of a genocide reached the point of the Holocaust. The intent was to stop genocide in its infancy.

While America's military may be on the brink of being drained due to the Iraqi misadventure, America must assume the moral lead in building a coalition that will stop the genocide in Darfur, even if it means American logistical assistance.

If America continues to permit genocide to occur right in its face, there remains no plausible explanation as to how America can be so moral in the eyes of the rest of the world, for it is the moral duty of everyone to bring their power to bear to halt a genocide in progress.

Hopefully, our leaders will act without the prodding of 3,211 speeches and twenty years. Otherwise, there will no longer be a genocide in Darfur, for the perpetrators will have completed their dastardly deed.