Darfur “Genocide” pervades U.S. campaign discourse

By Daniel Van Oudenaren

July 27, 2008 (WASHINGTON) — Senator Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic nominee for President of the United States, told a crowd of 200,000 Germans gathered at the Berlin Victory Column on Thursday that “the genocide in Darfur shames the conscience of us all.” He added later, “Will we give meaning to the words ‘never again’ in Darfur?”

Obama’s rival, meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain, emphasized twice during an interview for “This Week,” a television show aired this Sunday, that Obama’s opposition to 2007 troop increases in Iraq could have led to “chaos” and “genocide.”

German politicians typically have been more guarded than their American counterparts in their rhetoric on Darfur — German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for instance, preferred to speak of the “Darfur conflict” during a July 15 press conference with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

But the American candidates have unequivocally characterized the conflict as genocide. McCain and Obama, along with primary challenger Senator Hillary Clinton, signed a joint statement on May 28 declaring that “five years of genocide” in Darfur is “unacceptable to the American people and the world community.”

Despite this jointly held position, in a series of events this past week the candidates competed to appear tougher than the other on genocide.

As Obama laid a wreath Wednesday at Israel’s Yad Vashem Hall of Remembrance, a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, McCain aide Tucker Bounds emailed reporters a statement questioning Obama’s commitment to stopping genocide. The McCain campaign insists that Obama’s plan for Iraq would have failed to quell violence and could have led to genocide. Bounds indicated in his statement that Obama’s Iraq stance is inconsistent with his position on genocide elsewhere.

Obama remarked at the Yad Vashem museum, “Despite this record of monumental tragedy, this ultimately is a place of hope, because it reminds us of our obligations and our responsibilities, and hopefully creates a better future for our children and our grandchildren.”

Cindy McCain, Senator McCain’s wife, was part of a similarly high-profile delegation to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial on July 19. She was accompanied by former Arkansas governor Mick Huckabee, who challenged McCain in the Republican primary, and by former Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle (Democrat) and Bill Frist (Republican).

During McCain’s television interview Sunday, he said, “If we had done what Sen. Obama wanted done, it would have been chaos, genocide, increased Iranian influence, perhaps al-Qaeda establishing a base again.” He added, “the consequences of failure would have been severe.” McCain has made prioritizing victory in Iraq a central part of his platform.

But the campaign rhetoric also makes use of the increasing political leverage of the term “genocide” as the candidates vie for credibility with Darfur activists and constituencies traditionally sensitive to genocide, including Jewish and Armenian-American voters.

The Jewish vote will be particularly important in the swing state of Florida, where 27 electoral votes are at stake. Senator Joseph Lieberman, an independent senator from Connecticut and a conservative Jew, shares McCain’s position on Iraq and campaigned in south Florida July 20-21 on behalf of McCain. Lieberman cosponsored a January resolution urging the United States to provide tactical and utility helicopters for the UN-AU mission in Darfur.

The Armenian National Committee of America announced July 22 that Samantha Power, a close advisor to Obama during the early stages of his campaign, will be an honoree at the group’s Eastern Region annual banquet. Power won the Pulitzer Prize for her book A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide.

Obama received the endorsement of the Armenian-American leaders in January. He had objected to the U.S. State Department’s removal of Ambassador John Evans in 2006, after Evans publically used the term “genocide” to describe the slaughter of Armenians from 1915 to 1923.

A group of senators, most prominently Robert Menendez, has repeatedly blocked confirmation of a new Ambassador to Armenia until the nominee characterizes the killings as genocide. Obama used his position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to submit written questions to the new nominee, Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, at a June 19 hearing, stalling her confirmation.

The U.S. presidential election will take place November 4, 2008. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the one hundred Senate seats are also up for election.

The U.S. presidential election will take place November 4, 2008. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the one hundred Senate seats are also up for election.

(ST)