People are always asking me, "Why do you hate the Enough Project and John Prendergast so much?"
Well folks, this morning I came across an example of why it is that I want to stab pencils in my ear and wash my eyes out with bleach every time Prendergrast utters a word.
Speaking about the current violence in Abyei and South Kordofan, Prendergast made this brilliant suggestion:
At the risk of sounding like an even bigger hippy than Prendergrast, handing out weapons to one side of a conflict is not really a great path to peace. South Sudan is not engaging in combat for a reason. Its not because they don't have the capacity, but rather because they have experienced Enough! fighting and violence and want to simply resolve the issue diplomatically. By providing them with air defence and telling them to use it, you will merely be committing the SPLA further into the conflict, which will then demand a response from the Khartoum, leading to full scale war. People are tired of wars, and as horrible as it might be to count the casualties of Khartoum's air raids, it can't be worst than sending the entire region back into war where casualty numbers will dwarf those of the current air raids. As nice as it is to fantasize about killing the evil doer, it just isn't how the world works. So instead of making these awful emotionally plagued policy suggestions, why don't you, Clooney, the Machine Gun Preacher and that crazy American Ninja in Afghanistan go start a club for maverick superhero wannabes and take down dictators across the globe.
Prendergast: Clooney! How did you get to be Batman AGAIN? And why the hell am I wonderwoman?!!
Well folks, this morning I came across an example of why it is that I want to stab pencils in my ear and wash my eyes out with bleach every time Prendergrast utters a word.
Speaking about the current violence in Abyei and South Kordofan, Prendergast made this brilliant suggestion:
the Enough Project, an advocacy group, called for the U.S. to provide air defense systems to southern Sudan to help the region protect itself and deter escalating violence in the north-south border region, where the north has attacked on multiple fronts. (Link)
At the risk of sounding like an even bigger hippy than Prendergrast, handing out weapons to one side of a conflict is not really a great path to peace. South Sudan is not engaging in combat for a reason. Its not because they don't have the capacity, but rather because they have experienced Enough! fighting and violence and want to simply resolve the issue diplomatically. By providing them with air defence and telling them to use it, you will merely be committing the SPLA further into the conflict, which will then demand a response from the Khartoum, leading to full scale war. People are tired of wars, and as horrible as it might be to count the casualties of Khartoum's air raids, it can't be worst than sending the entire region back into war where casualty numbers will dwarf those of the current air raids. As nice as it is to fantasize about killing the evil doer, it just isn't how the world works. So instead of making these awful emotionally plagued policy suggestions, why don't you, Clooney, the Machine Gun Preacher and that crazy American Ninja in Afghanistan go start a club for maverick superhero wannabes and take down dictators across the globe.
Very acute. And when Prendergast is saying this, you can bet Samantha Power is as well, in Obama's ear.
ReplyDeleteI tend to just bang my head against the nearest wall when Prendergast starts talking, but the pencils sound good too. Might try that. Will colored pencils do the trick?
ReplyDeleteI'm getting a 404 Not Found for the "Machine Gun Preacher" link. Who would that be?
ReplyDeleteI think every militarily-weaker entity should be provided with air defenses. I'd start with Southern Lebanon (Hezbollah), Hamas, what's left of independent Libya, and every other state or entity that's under attack, or threat of attack, from the United Snakes, its allies and clients.
ReplyDeleteMore weapons is never the answer. Incredibly frustrating to read that as a suggestion from a group that touts itself as an anti-genocide, pro-peace organization.
ReplyDelete@Ann-- I think that there was an extra "www.blogger.com" within that address. Take it out and it should work.
Yeah sorry, that link should be fixed now. And if you have never heard of the Machine Gun Preacher, you should take this into consideration when reading about him:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rovingbandit.com/2010/10/machine-gun-preacher-disowned-by-splm.html
Oh. And more fantastic news:
http://www.dailyblam.com/news/2011/06/15/gerard-butler-getting-oscar-push-for-upcoming-machinegun-preacher