US Vows 'Never Again' (Unless Darfur)
The article rightly calls for action after el-Fasher, highlighting that massacres at the war's start 'should have shocked the world into action.' Indeed. Yet, while the humanitarian crisis in Darfur has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions since the early 2000s, US intervention has consistently prioritized what it deems 'strategic interests' elsewhere. During the height of
the Darfur genocide, for instance, the US was deeply engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan, citing 'national security' while ignoring UN pleas for a robust peacekeeping force in Sudan. One might wonder if a more aggressive stance would have been adopted had Darfur been sitting on vast, untapped oil reserves needed for the global market, instead of merely its suffering population. The 'new normal' isn't
that atrocities exist; it's that global powers only see them through a lens of geopolitical convenience, deploring them with op-eds while funding conflicts elsewhere that benefit their allies. How many 'last warnings' before the world finds a conflict it considers profitable enough to genuinely intervene in?