here's an important piece on sudan, from the latimes: "state-sponsored pyromania." i remember susan rice, now the ambassador to the u.n., saying that the one thing she learned from serving in the clinton admin, with regard to rwanda, is that you can't dick around while the genocide goes forward. it's amazing how fast the political calculations set in when you actually have the power to do something. for that matter, obama really seemed to pledge to intervene during his campaign. there is nothing happening. ok i'm an anarchist blah blah blah, but i believe that if you actually do have to power to intervene in a genocide, you are morally obliged to do so. we do, and we are obligated. but we aren't doing a damn thing, i believe. the success of our diplomatic effeorts to isolate the regime and so on will coincide with the final emptying of the region of its living human beings.