Kristof says genocide in Darfur could easily be stopped

Brilliant column by Kristof today. Here an excerpt:

Early in his presidency, Mr. Bush read a report about Bill Clinton’s paralysis during the Rwandan genocide and scrawled in the margin, “Not on my watch.”

But in fact the same thing is happening on his watch, and I find that heartbreaking and baffling. Mr. Bush’s core constituency, the religious right, has been pushing him to be more active on Sudan, and some of the first people to jump up and down about Darfur were in Mr. Bush’s own Agency for International Development.

Mr. Bush did take modest action (much more than most Europeans), and even these baby steps halted the worst of the killing, saving tens of thousands of lives. So, in effect, Mr. Bush had the ball in his hands - and then fumbled it.

NY Times