Mr. Obama, Darfur is on YOUR Watch.

Dear President Obama,

Hi, remember me? I voted for you.

As my friend and fellow blogger Michael Kleinman so appropriately put it, the fit has hit the shan in Darfur. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for your scum-of-the-earth counterpart in Sudan, President Omar al-Bashir, and he retaliated by delivering a huge blow to the massive humanitarian operations serving the people he's brutalized for the past six years.

But we knew this was coming --- the ICC even sidestepped its normal procedures and gave us a date for the announcement. Bashir has repeatedly threatened to kick humanitarian operations out of the country, and it's no freaking surprise that he's actually doing it. As I wrote last night --- I'm sure you saw it --- he's playing a deadly game of chicken, and hedging his bets that he can continue on his merry war criminal way sans consequences.

The protracted conflict in Darfur has been in a holding pattern for far too long, and desperately needed a game changer to force a new opening for resolutions. However, such a thing cannot be expected to come without consequences. But we had a pretty damn good idea of what those consequences would be --- and the answer is not to not go for the game changer, it's to act quickly to use it to your advantage and seek to mitigate the short term consequences.

The answer is not to throw the ball squarely in Bashir's court, by suspending the indictment, and then seek to manage an what was already an increasingly devastating humanitarian catastrophe for as long as Bashir decides to pursue his brutal war.

I know that you agree with me there. So the I ask, Mr. President, where are you?

Now, I know you don't have a magic button that you can push and make this all go away. Nor am I proposing an Iraq-style invasion --- definitely would not be helpful. But as a litany of very smart policy wonks have repeatedly put forth, there are concrete steps that the US is in a position to take to show that there are consequences for his actions as well.

For example, from Nick Kristof (and please read his full piece for additional points and details):

"The first step is to insist that aid groups be reinstated immediately to prevent this genocide in slow motion. A second step could be to destroy one of Mr. Bashir's military planes with a warning that if he takes his genocide to a new level by depriving Darfuris of food and medical care, he will lose the rest of his air force."

And Secretary Clinton, you can't just send your spokesman to a press conference and tell me that you're working on it and expect me to be satisfied. I understand that much goes on in the diplomatic backchannels that will not and cannot be known to the public, but there has to be a better middle ground between diplomatic discretion and issuing a bunch of bland condemnations and then remaining largely silent.

We were far too forgiving of former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for not intervening to halt the genocide in Rwanda, when they could've done so quite easily. They shed a tear and apologized, and re-entered our good graces a tad too easily. President Bush could've done more, and we certainly tried, but also shrugged our shoulders a bit --- "Eh, it's Bush. What do you expect?"

But you've given us hope. It's time to live up to it. Darfur is happening on your watch, and this time, we will not be so forgiving.

SHOW ME your "unstinting resolve."

Hugs.

Michelle

[Photo: The famous "Hope" photo of Obama....holding a Save Darfur bracelet.]