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MySpace Organizes Sudan Fundraiser
tanman writes to tell us CNN is reporting that MySpace is sponsoring a series of 20 concerts as an effort to raise awareness about the humanitarian relief efforts in Sudan. From the article: "The concerts will take place October 21. Artists include TV on the Radio in Philadelphia, Alice in Chains in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Ziggy Marley in Medford, Oregon, Citizen Cope in Seattle, Gov't Mule in Spokane, Washington, and Insane Clown Posse in St. Petersburg, Florida."
In the news in the UK (not all owned by the same guy who owns Fox and The sun) Youtube and Myspace is the new poster child of the internet. Very rarely does a day go by when youtube is not mentioned on something or Myspace is mentioned. It's even got to the point where live quiz shows have hosts giving out their Myspace URLs and giving away free gifts to random people on them.
While in the US it's "kekeke pedos" here in the UK it has a positive image and is doing "good things"
I like muppets.
I too, concur that this is a tragedy of epic proportions, but, I think, is being ignored by both sides of the aisle for political reasons.
The Right, unfortunately, knows that our military cannot support serious actions to halt the genocide that is happening. As typically strong supporters of our military, they don't want to see the military face losses on top of what they are incurring in Iraq. Such an act could quickly become a political lightening rod.
In order for the Left to support such an action, they would have to support invading a sovereign nation whose official ties to terrorism are only hints and whispers, and without official UN approval, which is exactly their protest against the Iraq Invasion. Even with knowledge that the Iraqi government was killing their own citizens, The Left opposed invasion. To suddenly support a Darfur excursion would end up making them look like extreme hypocrites.
Also, the lesson we learned from Vietnam is that in order to win the war, we would have to wage war on the "tail" side of the agressors, drawing their front-line troops away to defend their home turf. That turns in a CQB (Close-Quarter Battle), which inflicts heavy losses on an invading force. Or we carpet bomb the mostly muslim north, allowing for the (pardon me for saying this) anti-US Muslim propaganda machine to run at full tilt again.
Remember, these conquering forces have many 10-year-old boys with AK-47s. All you have to do is take away the gun, and suddenly, "THE UNITED STATES MILITARY IS KILLING MUSLIM CHILDREN" shows up on CNN.
Then there will be protests at a University, but that's ok.
If I might suggest a situation for history to repeat itself, I propose Kent State.
I support evacuation. The issue I see is that any provisions sent to the region would just as likely end up feeding conquering Janjaweed forces as hungry Christians.
After evacuation, our forces could carpet bomb at will, knowing that any movement in the area was hostile invaders.
In my opinion, the Sudanese Government is attempting genocide. The ironic part is that it is mostly African (Read: Black) population that is bearing the brunt of this, and the Arab population is causing it. I think this is a problem of politically correct crisis. You can't support one side without appearing biased against the other. No politician will touch it, so no action will happen.
Which is truly unfortunate.
Of course, there is a solution to all of this, and I think it should be widely deployed after evacuation:
But, I wonder how the people who were opposed to the Iraqi Invasion are going to react. Are they going to admit that invading Iraq for the reasons stated were acceptable after all, or simply wait for the UN to draft up a strongly worded letter to the Sudanese government?
Joe
Explaining why this "fund raiser" is being conducted almost exclusively in the U.S. (It would be exclusive, except for a show in Toronto.)
From TFA:
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
While most of what you speek is probably true, the Fox news channels have been talking about the sudan problems, releif efferts, and possible military actions for a while now. It gets mixed in with all the other problems in that continental area over the last 30 or so years.
The problems seem to be with releif organizations wanting the UN to actualy do something about it. This conflicts with the UN's current agenda of "bitch about yet another US led war" or "something the US has done to destroy the world" or sit around obstructing plans of action while terroist friendly and hostile third world countries get one of the most devestatingly capable military weapons availible or trying to line the pockets of companies associated with the leaders of the UN. Of course, if the UN was concerned about the area(which they should be), they would just send a letter or 400 letters declaring how upset the world comunity are. So it isn't like it would matter too much.
I say the best efforts to help in that area might be a military action by one of the worlds leading super powers. If that isn't possible for whatever reasons, the money for food and cloathing/shelter should go to supporting a private army of mercenaries dedicated to swift insertion actions againt the controling government who is allowing it and exiting the country. Add this to measures to take out thier air capabilities and command centers. If they retaliate by stepping up the violence, take it a step further and set up a fortified perimitor around the refuge camps, arm and train the refugies and release them to defend themselves. Keep them as part of the private army and pay them with the free food and supplies intended for them in the first place.
It sounds harsh but then so does making sure a person had a full meal before they got killed, raped, mutilated, tortured and anything else hapening.
It's super trendy to care about Palestinian rights, while the world turns a blind eye to a whole peoples living in far worse conditions, suffering far greater terrors with far FAR less media coverage, and very few people caring.
It's sad how right wingers claim to care about the poor Iraqis terrorized under Saddam, the left wingers claim to care about poor Palestinians terrorized by Israel, but not one peep from either of these crowds about Sudanese being routinely killed, raped, brutalized by the Janjaweed.