An Obama Policy I Can Support: A Peace Deal in Sudan

Here is one part of the Obama Administration policy that I can (sort of) support: an effort to reach a comprehensive sustainable peace agreement in Sudan.  Although the Obama envoy, Scott Gration, is getting plenty of deserved flak from right and left for his infamous “cookies” quote about dealing with the Sudanese government, the general idea seems sound. Absent any will in the United States or in Europe for a military intervention to overthrow the government of Sudan, the best way to save lives and end the suffering there is a comprehensive peace agreement.

Is this a morally reprehensible policy to deal with an indicted war criminal?  Yes….but it is also morally reprehensible to refer action to the ICC, and then do absolutely nothing to carry out the ICC’s warrants except complain and try to isolate Sudan.  The government goes on and people continue to die and suffer.  Sure I would prefer to arrest Bashir, put in a new government, and end the suffering in Sudan.  But the realist in me knows that is not going to happen (and especially not with this President).

Making deals with morally reprehensible leaders was always going to be at the heart of the much vaunted Obama engagement policy.  Is it morally reprehensible to make deals with a confirmed and repeated Holocaust denier who has arguably incited genocide like the President of Iran? Yes, but engagement with someone like him is clearly part of the Obama policy.  The leader of North Korea, Kim Il Sung, has his own crimes to answer for.  But all of them, under the Obama theory of engagement, must be engaged.  So why not Bashir?

I suppose the answer is that Bashir is wanted by the ICC, but the others are not. But I don’t think, at this point, an ICC arrest warrant is a meaningful measurement of comparative moral reprehensibility, especially for Security Council referrals that are by their nature political.

So if one complains about dealing with Bashir, one should also complain about dealing with Iran and North Korea.  There are some folks who might make the across the board complaint (they are called neocons).  But many folks are split on this.  But they shouldn’t be.