"Cruel Choices: We Can Save Tens of Thousands in Sudan," by Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, 14 April, p. A25.

Nick Kristof of the NYTimes, to whom I gave the full-up brief back in 2002, has been waging a one-man campaign to get the West to give a rat's ass about the most recent example of mass violence and ethnic cleansing in Africaóthis time being Sudan. This is a classic clash between civilizations: where lighter-skinned Arab Janjaweed militias are systematically targeting darker-skinned tribal Africans for death and mass rape, all with the consent and support of Sudan's authoritarian government. While the war crimes pile up, what does the West do? Basically nothing. Sudan is so far inside the Gap as to fundamentally not matter. If there was more oil there, somebody might, but since there is so little and the security is so bad, these brutalities go unnoticed. No protests in Western capitals, no peace marchesónada.

The Core simply will not address the deepest Gap, or Africa, until we succeed in reconnecting the Middle East. I push for a firm course in Iraq because beyond all the effort we must make there, Africa waits in great painócompletely ignored.