Darfur and Rove's Political Theatre

The Darfur region of Sudan has been in a one-sided civil war since Feb. 2003. The international community has defined it as "genocide" since 2004. In June of 2004, when the U.S. and Pres. Bush hosted the G-8 Conference, various international and African leaders pleaded for U.S. involvement that many believed would have led to the participation of other G-8 and African nations and could have ended the bloodshed.

Three years later and countless people dead, why has George Bush decided at this point to hold sanctions against certain Sudanese to try and deflate the chaos there?

The only thing Bush is good at is spin, going to P.R. events and looking sincere. Acting like he cares about the troops, for instance, despite the mismanagement of their medical care.

Coming at this late hour and coinciding with Bush's promotion of the illegal workers amnesty plan, it appears to be another ruse of Karl Rove to make Bush appear humanitarian and concerned about other ethnicities.

The felon-purges in 2000 in Florida directed at non-felon African-Americans, as well as the same trick used in 2004 in Ohio, indicate Bush's concern about minorities and civil rights. Or, the Surge plan in Iraq only after the country had descended into civil war and some 600,000 Iraqis had been killed.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for the U.S. using what's left of it's diplomatic weight to help the people of Darfur. But if Bush is only using the suffering in Darfur to augment his image to further the amnesty plan, it should be called what it is: political theatre.