USAF CMSgt Speaks Up For Darfur

[NATO AIR]

I almost forget that I don't like them (j/k, its always a pleasure working with the USAF, even the louts in Yokota who are too busy playing Halo 2 to help us find the gear their logistics folks lose).

From the Pacific Stars & Stripes 02 FEB 06:

In the Sudanese province of Darfur, a nation oppressively ruled and terrorized by the National Islamic Front (long-time allies of Osama Bin Laden, Iran and Islamic Jihad), over 400,000 men, women and children have lost their lives in what during far braver times the US government characterized as genocide. The suffering of the survivors is unimaginable, a horrible existence where men can be arrested, tortured and murdered at any moment, women gang-raped and children sadistically maimed. The NIF regime utilizes air attacks, ethnic militias known as the Janjaweed and the silence of America and her allies to triumph over hope and freedom.

This past summer I had the honor of taking part in NATO's airlift of 1,500 Rwandan soldiers to Darfur to take part in an undermanned African Union peace monitor mission. I was struck by the quiet, desperate determination of these brave troops who, having experienced genocide in their own tiny nation more than a decade ago, were praying and hoping for the chance to stop genocide in another country, longing for the opportunity to save the lives of perfect strangers because it was "absolutely the right thing to do".

In part because of quickly dwindling cash and also a weak mandate that allows them little latitude to take action to stop genocide more aggressively, these Rwandan troops and their comrades in the 7,000 man peace monitor force are going to be forced to admit failure soon and abandon the nearly 1 million survivors to a fate none of us want to imagine.

I think this is tragic, and hope that somehow the political will to deploy a US helping hand to the crisis is forthcoming... soon. A small USAF contingent based out of the neighboring country of Chad could set up a no-fly zone that would nullify the air attacks of the Sudanese government, as well as sending a clear message to the regime that genocide is no longer a free enterprise for them to pursue without significant consequence. This is the kind of mission our military can and should begin to excel at, a targeted campaign with a well-calibrated set of achievable goals and standards to mark our progress by. Stopping genocide is never easy, but it certainly isn't improbable, let alone impossible.

CMSgt Alejondro Ortiz
Yokota AFB JSDF Liaison