The War in Darfur, Western Sudan, Africa, is now in its fifth year and its increasingly unlikely - despite their rhetorics - that major world powers will do anything to prevent the killings.
Some people are now calling for a free market/private sector solution to the conflict: if governments are unwilling to send soldiers to the area, how about the private sector hiring Blackwater mercenaries instead?
John of Locust & Honey wrote:
Several years into the Darfur genocide, it's getting increasingly unlikely that any of the major powers will do anything to prevent the extermination of these people. This problem has led some people to propose a free market solution: mercenaries.
Let us say, hypothetically, that a group of churches or denominations came together and hired a mercenary army to protect the people of Darfur from their Sudanese oppressors. Would their actions be consistent with Christian principles?
Photo caption: A Darfur survivor at the site of a mass grave on the outskirts of the West Darfur town of Mukjar. Photo by: Nasser Nasser and Alfred de Montesquiou - via AP
I'm sure these same allegations will be raised again, but clearly something must be done. It is really striking and disgraceful that nations would invade a country based on false pretenses and trumpet how they "liberated" an "oppressed" and "suffering" people when the situation in Dafur was far, far worse. Citizens of Dafur and places similar truly need international help to include military assistance.
Truly shameful.
We strap nuclear bomb detonators to all the villagers, so that if anyone harasses them, they set of a chain reaction of nuclear mayhem that takes out the entire country. Therefore it would be in everyone's best interest to tread lightly.
It's like MAD for civil wars!
What you guys think!? Awesome, right?
Seriously though, that mercenary idea has got to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard.
They were all white fellas and all seemed to have a few screws loose up stairs.
Oh and as for the Churches bank rolling this idea, wouldn't the Thou Shalt Not Kill bit sort of stymy them?
Of course it would be cheaper and more "ethical" to just fake discover of a massive oil reserve in the region. Then every industrialized nation on the planet would be falling all over themselves to bomb the holy hell out of the Sudanese and anyone else causing problems with the oil supply.
http://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/just_war.htm
http://www.catholic.com/library/Just_war_Doctrine_1.asp
*shudder*
>1,000,000
Oh Wait! Sudanese government doesn't like America
so its okay to kill people as long as its your government
Please, do not cheapen the plight of these people by assuming that a useless government body, such as the UN, will actually take initiative beyond legal threats. The murderous bands of state-funded terrorists will not stop as long as the free money, guns, and pillaging rights continue to flow from the Sudanese government.