June 8th, 2007 - Nikki Serapio  Permalink  View & Add Comments

Avoiding Responsibility

The important upshot suggested by International Crisis Group Senior Adviser and ENOUGH Co-Founder John Prendergast’s Congressional testimony yesterday: The White House has been blaming other countries for their inaction on Darfur, but really, this is a case where the critic has to take the beam out of his own eye first and foremost. Here’s Prendergast:

“A crucial misperception, I think, has to be corrected if we’re going to be effective in Darfur. The UN doesn’t move by itself: It has to be moved by the brain inside the United Nations, which is the United Nations Security Council…and the most powerful nation in the Security Council is the United States.”

“The UN moves when the U.S. moves it. I worked in the last administration, I spent a lot of time doing this stuff…It simply doesn’t happen unless we move. So to displace responsibility to other nations or other “international organizations” of which we are the dominant member does a disservice to the cause.”