National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley announced Monday
that President Bush approved the airlifting of equipment to support an
international humanitarian mission in Darfur.
Bush is waiving congressional notification requirements
to make sure the aid gets to the troubled region as quickly as possible
“because failing to do so would pose a substantial risk to human health and
welfare,” Hadley said.
{mosads}In making the announcement, he also slammed New York Times columnist Nicholas
Kristof, who penned a column late last month criticizing the Bush
administration for not having done enough to end the genocide in Darfur.
Hadley said that column was “inaccurate.”
“President Bush has been committed to resolving the
crisis there since the United States first labeled it genocide in 2004,” Hadley
stated. “Even prior to the Darfur crisis, the president showed his commitment
to the cause of peace in Sudan by pressing for a historic peace agreement
between the North and South that ended the country’s 22-year civil war which
took more than 2 million lives.”
Hadley also said that Bush had weighed “robust military
options” to address the crisis.
“The decision not to pursue those options was driven by
the pleas of the leading church, advocacy and humanitarian organizations
dedicated to Darfur, who argued that United States military action would
imperil their ability to deliver the kinds of life-saving assistance that
continues to keep more than 3.5 million Darfuris alive each year,” he said.
Hadley pointed to tough and effective U.S. sanctions,
arguing that they played a role in allowing U.N. peacekeepers access to Darfur.