The United States has drafted a new U.N. resolution threatening oil sanctions against Sudan if the government does not stop abuses in Darfur and accept an expanded African Union monitoring force with more powers.

Would sanctions be the right thing to do? Inevitably, it's ordinary people who suffer when sanctions are imposed and there are shortages of food and medical supplies.

However what alternative does the world have? Indeed, should the world do anything at all?

Beef up the AU force, and give them a mandate to actually DO something about it. I'm amazed that Colin Powell has called it genocide. The Us government has also pointed out that things are at least this bad in northern Uganda, with intense fighting against the Lord's Resistance Army, but that hasn't even hit the headlines.

Its not exactly clear to me why this has such a high media profile. Not to be callous, but these sorts of things happen all the time.

It does put it into perspective. After the iraq war, plenty of people said we had to invade, because the Iraqi people were suffering under a cruel government. Just look what happens when there is no oil involved, and reconsider the whole 'for the good of teh Iraqi people' argument.