Genocide on Bush's watch

Editorial:

Shortly after he assumed the presidency, George W. Bush reviewed a report on the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s. In the margin, he wrote, "Not on my watch."

Now, all indications are that a genocide of dramatically greater proportions could play out in the Sudan's Darfur region. As many as 3.5 million innocent civilians, the vast majority of them refugees, face extermination by forces aligned with the Sudanese government. The crime of the people of Darfur is their ethnicity, which is not that of the ruling elites in the Sudan.

Bush has taken some appropriate steps. Addressing the United Nations this week, he challenged world leaders to act quickly to get a functional peacekeeping force into the region. A weak force, dispatched by African governments, got some relief Wednesday in a deal that will give it some U.N. support if it stays on through the year. Bush is right that a stronger force eventually must be sent to the region.Read more >>>