Washington Post: All Kinds Suffer in Sudan

Among the many lessons, we have to learn from this tragedy in which God only knows how many souls have perished, is that helping the oppressed means taking the time to know who they are and not assuming that those with different names are in different circumstances.

I have been as guilty as the next liberal in painting this as a conflict between oppressive Arabs and vulnerable Africans, but the truth is more complicated. In fact, the Darfurian Genocide is much more akin to the "good versus evil" framework in which President Bush has conceived his disjointed War On Terror/War Against Terror/War on Terrorism/Global War on Terrorism. Thus far it has presented a real instance in which the argument against an overly mighty government which can exercise domination of the governed populace has validity.

Another crucial lesson is that there are many types of suffering. This quote is from a tribal leader whose camp has recently been added to the number receiving basic food aid and water.

The main problem that remains, he said, is the profound boredom that comes from a life of long walks confined to a small circle, livelihoods wiped out.