[DerbyX]

Gunnair Gunnair:

Nope. But so far you've only suggested we don't pick sides and bring more violence to the regionm which as a matter of fact, is what the international community is essentially doing. Does that mean we're on track?

On track? We aren't involved nor should we be. Its a civil war. Both sides have militaries and political agendas. Its up to them to bring peace for themselves or ask for international help restoring peace.

What you seem to be advocating is we send in the troops to destroy on entire side, a plan that isn't working anywhere else we try it. Considerng that the violence is drawn along tribal/ethnic line as sharply s political we will end up targetting whole groups of people and involving ourselves in tribal warfare.

That is yet another recipe for disaster and bogging us down in a conflict that will last at least as long as our current war.

You seem to be advocating a military forced regime change but we have no guarentees the new one will be any better. In Iraq the worst of the fighting was against the very people Saddam was fighting and in Afghanistan the people we helped overthrow the big bad USSR turned out to be warlord thugs.

If force is to be used then it should be used only as a means to keep warring factions apart and protect civilian populations. Letting both sides know that we aren't there to depose them but will retaliate against them if they break certain conditions.

Gunnair Gunnair:

Would I be misinterpreting this to mean you'd prefer we did nothing - let them sort it out amongst themselves as we did?

Only if you consider anyting but the use of full military force to be nothing. Political pressure and diplomatic pressure to be allowed to send food and aid unmolested along with the military to protect it. Play both sides off thinking that if one attacked us we might just fully side with the other. Make attacking peacekeepers a very bad descision.

Gunnair Gunnair:

Agreed. Now, how do you make the Sudanese government, and the Janjaweed militia share with the non-Arab populations? Othewise, aren't we just giving the one powerful side lots supplies?

We make sure they know we are deliverng food aid to the needy areas directly. Give some food as a tribute/peace offering to the govt/militia and explain that we are not asking them to deliver the food but ratehr we will do it ourselves.

If we want Canada to have more responsibility on the world stage then perhaps we should have a program in place that allows us to get food/medical aid quickly before drought becomes famine which sparks the wars.

Funny how we don't seem to think of that as our responsibility. In fact instead of using force as an absolute means of last resort we seem to only regard its use as our sole responsibility.

Its nt our job to provide medical aid to places like SA and its aids crisis. Its not our responsibility to send large quantities of food to any number of drought/famine stricken areas but when war breaks out and we have a chance to send in the troops we suddenly we hear cries of "we can't be isolationists" and "we have a duty to act".

Yeah, we did have a duty. We just missed every opportunity. This is like waiting for the shooting pains in th left arm before deciding to wage war on your cholesterol levels and clogging arteries.