Untangling the False Narrative of a ‘New Humanitarianism’ for Darfur

In his book “Saviors and Survivors”, Mahmood Mamdani describes how US Secretary of State Colin Powell “made two pivotal presentations” during his term in Office under George Bush. The first presentation was his defense of the US government claim that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in Iraq, thus establishing the pretext for the illegal US invasion of Iraq. The 2nd false narrative Powell was instrumental in creating had to do with the claim that there was genocide being carried out in Darfur.

With respect to Powell’s claims of WMD in Iraq, much of the mainstream media in the US dutifully went along with the US government propaganda campaign by creating a false narrative to justify the US government’s military attack on Iraq.

There has been the general acknowledgement by some of the mainstream media that their advocacy on… weiter lesen

[Editor's Note:This is part II of  the article "Security Council Extends Joint UN-AU Darfur Mission Despite Controversy"]

Mamdani on Darfur

In an article he wrote for the London Review of Books in 2007, Columbia Professor Mahmood Mamdani explains the background of the fighting in Darfur and his view that there is the need for a political settlement to the conflict in Darfur to end the suffering of civilians.

Mamdani describes the role played by the U.S. government, the U.S. press and  some U.S. advocacy organizations to develop what he terms “the reduction of the complex political context to a morality tale….” (8)

Mamdani proposes that there has been a widespread and well funded campaign to support U.S. government sanctions against Sudan and the inaccurate labeling of… weiter lesen