By The Chronicle
When the Bush administration was making plans to launch the war in Iraq, this campus was not silent. In fact, Iraq war protesters formed a popular movement across the country. It resembled an ordinary political campaign with bumper stickers, advertisements and mass e-mails. It was the new-cool-left thing to do. Although those protests did not stop the war, they did make their dissent clear to America. Among the chief arguments of Iraq war opponents was a well-placed concern about human rights and the dangers innocent Iraqis would face.
Last April in New York the United Nations marked the 10-year anniversary of the Rwanda genocide - a powerful and gruesome reminder of Western inaction that allowed for the murder 800,000 Rwandans by the end of 1994.
So, now a distant nation is suffering from genocide and guess who's acting? George W. Bush. That's right, the man liberals fairly accused of gross human rights violations is doing more for the victims of Darfur, Sudan than Bill Clinton did for the Rwandans.
The United Nations still hasn't called the Darfur massacres what it is: Genocide. But, America has. Amidst a weak global standing, the United States is surfacing as the real good-guy right now thanks to the Bush administration.
In no way does this wash the administration clean of the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisoner abuse atrocities, but it does show that liberals are equally guilty of political-polarization. It's time to swallow the pride and do the right thing. Capitalize off of the Bush administration's action and push to stop the Khartoum government from allowing the murder of its own people. They argue it's a battle over land-land battles don't involve slitting toddlers throats, raping women and murdering their husbands and throwing dead animals in water-wells to poison drinking supplies. That is as brutal as brutal gets and now is the time for American college campuses to get involved.
The Bush administration needs public support to help get the rest of the world to join them in calling genocide when they see it.
Human rights activists ought to consider that it may be necessary to step away from anti-war convictions in order to serve the broader interest of protecting innocent civilians. Military action may be the only way.
It's morally obtuse and hypocritical to stand up and yell when prisoners in Iraq and Guantanamo are suffering from abuse but say nothing when hundreds of thousands are being raped and massacred in Africa.
Fighting to help end genocide may not be as "cool" as protesting a war, but it's equally, if not more, important.
Rally behind your ideals, not your politic and go make a difference. Let's hope in 2015 we're celebrating our action in Darfur, not repenting for it.