by David Nuttle

Created on: September 11, 2008

The United Nation's has limited authority and capability to conduct really effective peacekeeping operations. For this reason, many people would like the U.S. military to prevent Janjaweed, Arab militias (from the Abbala tribes) from killing or displacing more Black African, non-Arab, farmers from the Fur, Zaghawa, and Massaleit tribes. The fact that nearly 400,000 Africans have been killed since 2003, and over 2.8 million displaced since that date, has created an even greater demand for U.S. action to stop the genocide. Given the U.S. conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military does not have the forces needed to be effective in Darfur. Most Janjaweed forces are well armed by the Govenment of Sudan (GoS), and they receive some operational support from the Sudanese military and air force. The Janjaweed have good local intelligence, and are highly mobile using guerilla forces mounted on horse or camel. With all of these factors considered, the U.S. military would be expected to fail in Darfur.

There are a number of other things the U.S. could do to help stop the genocide in Darfur. Given the fact that the initial cause of the conflict was extreme drought, desertification, and overpopulation, the U.S. could offer to help with a program to drill water wells as well as to develop systems to collect and store the available rainwater. The U.S. could also offer to provide technology to make solid fuel ethanol pellets as a subsitute for charcoal now used by over 20 million Sudanese to cook and heat homes. (Sudan has surplus sugar crops to make the ethanol.) Cutting of trees and brush, to make all of this charcoal, is a major cause of desertification. The offer of help would be a gesture of friendship to see if GoS President Omar al-Bashir might change his policy of support for the Janjaweed. In addition, the U.S. could offer to help negotiate a truce with the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement, used by the Fur, and other African tribes, to organize an effort to fight the Janjaweed and demand fair treatment from the GoS.

In addition to the above effort, the U.S. needs to put more economic and diplomatic pressure on the Chinese to get them to dramatically reduce support for the GoS, and stop selling weapons to the GoS. At the same time, the U.S. needs to give PetroChina other options than buying petroleum from Sudan. The GoS has money to buy weapons, for the Janajaweed, because of all their oil (petroleum) sales to PetroChina. The

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