Exactly Why We Should Do Something About Darfur

First, because we're the Good Guys. There's a humanitarian disaster going on there. Looking back, we found it incredible that reports of the ongoing Holocaust during World War II were largely dismissed, until American troops walked into the concentration camps. And it's happening again right now.

Now, entering the cynical world of realpolitik, we can use Darfur against China. China has long had a policy of playing Older Brother to the Third World. When the Cold War was on, they tried to play the US off the USSR and seemed to act as a lookout for the developing world.

That strategy has continued. China recognizes an opportunity to look good in the developing world, where it doesn't cost much to change people's lives by building a road or a school or a well.

Yet somehow China doesn't seem to be bothered by what's going on in Darfur. This is why the West should take the opportunity to show Chinese strategizing for what it is (Spielberg's quitting the Olympics over it was a nice symbol but we need a little more than that). Is the Free World up to it? Are American conservatives?

IF IT'S BAD FOR THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT, IT'S GOOD FOR EVERYONE ELSE.