Bush Approves Airlift for Darfur, Hadley Bites, Kristof Bites Back (What a Day)

Published January 05, 2009 @ 04:50PM PT

Two things happened today that you should know about:

1. President Bush authorized an immediate American airlift of equipment to UNAMID peacekeepers in Darfur. In a word: Fantastic. (Seriously.)

2. National Security Advisors Stephen Hadley issued a statement criticizing Nicholas Kristof in a tone reminiscent of a wounded ego on a fool's errand.

Bush's unexpected commitment came after a meeting this morning with Salva Kiir, the president of the semi-autonomous South Sudan. (One can only wonder how much time was spent discussing his rather impressive hat.)

I'm not sure how often columnists---even the most influential ones---get such mention in official Executive Branch statements, but Hadley singles Kristof out:

"Today's announcement is further evidence that Nicholas Kristof's portrayal last week of this Administration's response to the genocide in Darfur (A New Chance for Darfur, December 28, 2008) was inaccurate. President Bush has been committed to resolving the crisis there since the United States first labeled it genocide in 2004."

Kristof's response is one for the books. A snippet:

"Look, I'm delighted that the White House is, belatedly, organizing this airlift. It sure smells of a desperate effort to burnish the administration's legacy on Darfur, but better late than never. This particular step is one that the White House and Pentagon have resisted for months, so my hunch is that President Bush finally weighed in after my column in question or that Hadley became concerned about his own reputation on this matter."

Kristof goes on to discuss what he sees as Bush's genuine interest in Darfur, and once again points to Hadley and Condoleezza Rice as the ones who reined him in.

But regardless of the motivation, the airlift is, as they say, kind of a big deal. As Twitter makes brevity a new form of art, Save Darfur's tweet on the matter sums it up quite nicely, I think:

"Airlift is important b/c helps UNAMID deploy, provide relief to suffering people of Darfur (currently out of reach b/c security concerns)"

And that's what it all comes down to.

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Comments (5)

Wow i'm surprised Bush did something good!

Posted by Eric Acedo on 01/05/2009 @ 07:09PM PT
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Ha, never though he would finally come through for us.

Posted by Douglass Trilliams on 01/05/2009 @ 07:35PM PT
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A white flag as the ship goes down. Bon voyage Bush.

Posted by Robert Norris on 01/05/2009 @ 09:29PM PT
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This went on all through the Clinton administration without a word, personally I think this would have been a better use of U.S. resouces than Iraq, but even with this last little bit of effort, He did more than Clinton.

Posted by Charlie Reed on 01/06/2009 @ 04:29AM PT
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This little package he dropped will just give everyone something to fight over. Bush just did this to prolong the chaos in Sudan, and put a little spin on it to try to save himself from indictment of war crimes.

Sorry Bush, no amount of shaking hands with Africans will save you from justice. You will be indicted and convicted for war crimes.

Posted by John Thompson on 01/06/2009 @ 09:42PM PT
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Michelle became involved in the anti-genocide cause at a young age, and has been involved in various activist endeavors, including the Teach Against Genocide pilot campaigns, ever since.