What would have been the right thing to do if the Allies truly understood the purpose, scale and extent of the Nazi death camp system (and some historians believe we were aware…)? The only solution in our power in 1943 and 1944 was to bomb the rail lines leading to places like Auschwitz and Treblinka and to bomb the gas chambers and crematoria.
     This solution would have slowed the genocide a little, but not diverted Hitler from his purpose. No amount of intimidation could do that. In the end we had to destroy Germany, defeat her armed forces and occupy the country to bring the genocide to a full stop.    
     What do we have to do to stop the genocide in Darfur of the Fur, Zaghawa, and Masaalit black African ethnic groups?     Campus rallies, donations to relief funds, letters to U.S. and European Union leaders, days of outrage, days of conscience, divestment campaigns, letters to Congress and angry blog entries (like this one) are not going to stop the Janjaweed militias from riding into black African villages, raping all the women older than 5 or 6, and killing the men and dumping their dismembered bodies into the water supply.
     The Janjaweed enjoy their work. They cannot be shamed. Neither can Sudanese government officials like the ones who, when at a recent General Assembly meeting at the U.N., were told to their faces by George Bush that Sudan was carrying on genocide. Two of the three Sudanese listed without expression. The other smirked.
     Legal action is ineffective. The International Criminal Court charged the President of Sudan, Omar al-Beshir, with masterminding genocide in Darfur. The world court prosecutor has sought an arrest warrant for al Beshir. This has not made a pariah out of al Beshir. Arab League chief Amr Mussa flew to Khartoum this weekend with a plan aimed at stalling legal action against the Sudanese president.          If al-Beshir had any respect for law and decency in the first place, he would not send his Janjaweed militias to rape schoolchildren as a tactic of war.
     Since al-Bashir has no regard for law, those who oppose his policy of genocide must resort to force.     In the 1990’s NATO, including the United States, stepped in to end the ethnic cleaning in the Balkans. Serbia, which intended to eliminate the Muslim population of Kosovo province, was prevented from doing so, but it took armed force. Bombs were dropped. Blood was spilled before the Serbs got the message that we were not going to allow Kosovo to be “ethnically cleansed.”
     Of course the Muslims in Kosovo were lucky. They were white Europeans.
     Europe and the United States have not been as quick to step into African crises. We did nothing 14 years ago to stop the genocide in Rwanda.
     Perhaps our sojourn in Mogadishu (the “Black Hawk Down” incident) has made us gun-shy when it comes to getting involved in African affairs. Perhaps we are afraid of offending the Chinese, who are special friends of the Sudan government. Perhaps the scraps and tidbits of information on al-Qaeda that we get from Sudan’s intelligence service are worth selling our souls for.
     Can we not include Sudan in the Axis of Evil? Isn’t genocide essentially a terrorist activity? Given the genocide in Darfur, how can anyone deny that Sudan is a terrorist state?
     The Janjaweed are way overdue for a visit from the United States Marines. It is time, way past time, that al-Bashir was given a practical demonstration of the capabilities of Naval Aviation and the United States Air Force.
     This is what being the world’s sole remaining superpower is all about. No one else will even try to stop al Bashir’s genocide. If we are not a power for good, then what are we? Saving helpless civilians from genocidal maniacs is what we do best. Maybe people need to be reminded of that. Maybe we need to be reminded.