U.S. to Promise $1.7B in Aid for Sudan

I cannot say this enough times, the US needs to be more proactive in assisting Africa at large out of extreme poverty and perpetual civil war. The thing about the "War on Terror" is that it's not a new and isolated event that began on 9/11. Islamic fundamentalism has been around since nearly the beginning of its founding and modern Islamic fundamentalism gets its roots in the formation of modern Saudi Arabia, for all intents and purposes. While many of the recruits for terrorist organizations come from "middle class" families and are not the child soldiers of Africa, it doesn't help matters that regardless of their collective poverty level, people feel there are less opportunity in the greater Middle East and therefore there is nothing to lose by joining the Jihad against Israel and Western Civilization. We ignored this long enough during the Cold War and it resulted in a number of terrorist attacks culminating in the aforementioned tragedy, 9/11.

We shouldn't continue to make that same mistake in Africa. We cannot continue to treat Africa like the South Bronx of yesterday. That is to say we can't just pull out all of our modern resources and let whatever happens there happen, come what may. We as Westerners not only have a moral obligation to assist in the rehabilitation of Africa at large, we also have a security stake in seeing Africa rise out of the muck and mire of extreme poverty and murderous disease. For our own potential safety, we simply cannot afford to be isolationists. Africa is the breeding ground for potential terror and God only knows what viruses unless we start to do something now before the big terror group claims a generation of hungry and angry Africans.

The following story about promised aid to the Sudan is a decent start, assuming we keep our promises. This from the AP:

OSLO, Norway (AP) - The United States on Tuesday pressured Sudan to quell bloodshed plaguing the African country's western region, with the State Department's second-in-command proclaiming "the eyes of the world are on Darfur."

"The world knows what is happening in Darfur and the government cannot escape the consequences of that knowledge," Robert Zoellick, top deputy of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, told donors at an international conference for Sudan.

He called on the Khartoum-based government to stop Arab militias and hold people accountable for atrocities as well as assist the African Union to monitor military flights over the bloodied swath of Sudan.

After pledging more than $1.7 billion, mostly for humanitarian aid and reconstruction assistance in the devastated southern region, Zoellick put a condition on future financial aid. "For us to sustain support, particularly related to the government in Khartoum, we're going to have to see action in Darfur," he said.

For its part, Zoellick said the Sudan People's Liberation Movement must work with Darfur rebels to comply with a cease-fire.

An estimated 180,000 people have died and more than 2 million have lost their homes since early 2003 when black African farmers clashed with government-backed Arab militias in what former Secretary of State Colin Powell has called genocide.

"The violence and atrocities in Darfur cast a dangerous shadow over our work," Zoellick told other donor countries here. "We need to see an end to atrocities and the return of peace in Darfur."

The North and South, Zoellick said, can't be committed to achieving peace in accordance with their January agreement to end a two-decade old civil war without addressing violence in the western region. Failure would mean "Sudan could slip back into the depths," he said.

Zoellick, who is visiting Darfur later this week, met with leaders of the mostly Arab Sudanese government in the North and the black African rebels who control the South while in Norway. He said both sides indicated they don't want continuing strife in Darfur.

Still, in a statement, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement group - the said implementing the peace agreement would provide "the best opportunity for the resolution of the conflicts in Darfur and Eastern Sudan."