"Out of Iraq, into Darfur!" has emerged as the rallying cry for war critics lobbying Washington to bolt from its unpopular quagmire in the heart of the Middle East and set its sights on a much less contentious objective instead: halting the genocide in war-tattered Sudan.
In reality, with a more critical eye social justice"seeking students should consider singing another tune -- Iraq is the new Darfur.
It is a tale of two conflicts. In February 2003, the Sudanese military and Janjaweed militias launched their ruthless campaign against the non-Arab African tribes in the western region of Darfur. To date, according to the Save Darfur Coalition, approximately 400,000 Darfurians have perished in the ongoing genocide.
And literally weeks after these developments in central Africa, the "shock and awe" of Operation Iraqi Freedom marked the start of the bungled U.S. occupation that ignited sectarian violence across the country.
With 68% of Americans voicing opposition to the war in Iraq, according to a December CNN survey, it has become imperative to advocate a withdrawal as soon as possible.
However, the removal of the Pentagon's 160,000-troop buffer separating the armed Sunni and Shiite camps provide the ingredients for a humanitarian disaster. Masked under the violence of a Sunni-Shiite civil war, the domineering Shiite militias could simply abandon the idea of coexisting in a multiethnic Iraq. Instead, they too could opt for a "final solution" against the rebellious Sunni minority.
Brookings Institution senior fellow Michael O'Hanlon warned in April 2007 that the post-withdrawal destabilization would breed "a very high chance of genocide." Last August, a leading Sunni politician foretold an "unprecedented genocide campaign" at the hands of Shiite death squads.
Armed with the potent blend of youthful idealism and chunks of unstructured time, U.S. collegians champion the plight of the third world.
E-mail inboxes are flooded with pleas from coalitions of students combating AIDS, hunger and genocide in Africa.
This is the "white man's burden" retooled for the 21st century.
In 1985, activists at Dartmouth erected a faux shantytown on the Green in protest against apartheid-era South Africa. And more recently, the Darfur Action Group at the University of California, Amherst, and others successfully pushed their administrations to divest from the duplicitous regime in Khartoum.
These days, socially conscious students sport "Save Darfur" t-shirts, along with matching rubber wristbands to fashionably raise awareness.
Move over "urban chic," welcome to "genocide chic."
Hollywood power couple Brangelina picked up the cause on their visits to the Darfurian refugee camps in neighboring Chad.
And with a few easy clicks, forever-wired students join Facebook groups that underscore their deep personal convictions, such as "Fight Genocide! Save Darfur!" and "I Like Making Forts Out of Couch Cushions and Blankets." Simply put, warring against genocide has become this generation's cause-clbre.
With this the case, why have youthful activists failed to highlight the budding genocide in Iraq?
Without diminishing the horrors and urgency of Darfur, they should inject a healthy dose of skepticism into the national debate over an American departure from Mesopotamia.
Unlike the conflict in Darfur, the war in Iraq has been politicized. From the get-go, Dennis Kucinich's apostles have lambasted the "Bush regime" for its illegal neo-imperial misadventure. And these days, war proponents are written off as card-carrying neoconservatives.
Look beyond the partisan blinders.
While the United States was an idle bystander in Rwanda and Darfur, Washington had a direct hand in generating the chaotic conditions in Iraq susceptible to genocide. Despite the Pentagon's obvious missteps over the past five years, the U.S. should not betray the Iraqis and allow their state to meltdown into civil war and mass killing.
It is true that genocide has yet to unfold in earnest in the "land between two rivers." Yet once genocide materializes, it can rapidly play out before any hope of outside intervention musters. In just 100 days, 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Prevention matters.
Whether making one more diplomatic full-court press to build a quasi-tolerant pluralistic nation, or pushing for a federalist state that diffuses sectarian tensions, the U.S. owes it to the Iraqis to devote more energy to the Iraq project and prevent genocide.
Socially aware youth clad in "Save Darfur" gear must back this endeavor.
Go ahead, ignore the Karl Rove"inspired talking points, but there are still genuine moral qualms about leaving Baghdad.
The situation is much less cut-and-dry than choosing between "cut and run" and "stay the course."
