Save Darfur Can't Save Darfur

Aid worker Michael Kleinman throws some cold water:

In all the activist rhetoric about genocide, one critical fact is lost - as bad as the situation is, it could be far worse.  If you don't understand this simple point, you don't understand the stakes involved. For the most part, the Sudanese Government has not unleashed large scale attacks against the millions huddled in IDP camps.

...Similarly, although humanitarian agencies face crippling bureaucratic impediments, the fact is that they are for the most part able to operate.  According to the most recent UN Darfur Humanitarian Profile, the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and NGOs delivered food to 3.4 million people in Darfur last month.  Almost 2.5 million people had access to primary health care.

A concerted attack on large IDP camp like Kalma, which houses as many as 90,000 people, could make Srebrenica seem like a day in the park. If the Sudanese Government ever did force the UN and NGOs to leave, then millions of people would risk starvation.

Any call for action must be weighed against the possible affects on the ground.