There is something that stinks in Darfur. Actually, there is something that stinks worse in the US media. Let's take a look at some facts that are being left out in the reporting on the "genocide" in Darfur.
-Why Darfur? Sure, there is an appalling civil war with from 2 - 4 hundred thousand killed. But the invasion of the Congo has killed 5 million.
-Sudan and the Darfur region sits on a huge lake of oil. Oil now being developed by Chinese companies, not by US and British ones. Sudan is also located next to Libya and Chad, each with its own vast oil resources.
-The funding for the "Save Darfur" coalition is highly suspect. None of the money raised is being spent to help needy Africans in Darfur. In fact, it is not a grass roots organization at all, but one funded by The American Jewish World Service and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. It has a paid staff of 30 people and a budget (in 2007) of 15 million dollars. Their latest ads target China, host of the 2008 Olympic Games, in an attempt to drive their oil companies out of Sudan.
-The "Save Darfur" coalition is top heavy with evangelical Christians who preach about the apocalypse in the Middle East, and Zionists who would prefer drawing attention away from human rights abuses in Palestine.
-And are peace talks in the works? Not if the Save Darfur coalition and the US Pentagon have anything to say about it. The aim is to invade Sudan with US and Nato troops, establish permanent bases, and start making money on all that African oil.
-Beginning to sound like Iraq? You have the same players: US oil companies, a US government addicted to war, and right wing religious fanatics driving US foreign policy.
-And waiting in the wings is Blackwater, the huge mercenary contractor that has become part of the American right wing. It has plans for "protecting" villages in Darfur and is just waiting for the word.
-And the US media? It has avoided these facts like the plague. From the NY Times on down, the US media's role is to sell military interventions, not to inform citizens about the real reasons we invade foreign countries.
(taken from Z Magazine, Jan. 2008)
