Sudan Backs Down

President Bush's aggressive stance toward Sudan is paying off. Two weeks ago, his administration imposed additional sanctions against the regime that is either perpetrating or enabling ethnic cleansing in Darfur. Khartoum indicated today that it would be willing to accept an international peacekeeping force more than double the size of the current African Union force of 7,000. More importantly, the new force will be run by the UN and have Scandinavian expertise; the current AU forces have been poorly funded and overstretched. Given those conditions, the world owes them a huge "thank you" for their efforts in stemming the violence in Darfur.

France continues to provide support in Darfur as a helpful size comparison, and maybe some material support as well. Other Arab countries continue to contribute by staunchly sticking to their policy of 'Khartoum Carte Blanche'.

And the U.S. media contributes with these stories about the new sanctions, which were imposed last month:

• Save Darfur Coalition says Bush's Sudan sanctions may be too late - AP
• Impact of Bush's Sudan sanctions doubted - Seattle Times
• Sudan, Iran find a bypass to UN sanctions - USA Today
• Sudan sanctions called inadequate - San Francisco Chronicle
• Sudan Spying for CIA - Free Market News Network

This despite Nancy Pelosi and Tony Blair's unqualified support.

To recap: for months, the international community has been trying to get Sudan to accept UN involvement in the peacekeeping. Bush imposed sanctions on May 29. On June 11, Sudan agreed to accept UN forces.