Where the Troops Should Be

Iraq was never a place our military should have been sent. Besides the complete lack of compelling, legal casus belli, many of us predicted the mess they'd be bogged down in before the first boots hit the ground. But that doesn't mean there aren't places in the world our soldiers could do much good. Take Darfur, for instance.

One hundred thousand American troops, deployed with a similar number of UN Peacekeepers, could make a huge difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of displaced people being terrorized by rebels and their own government. They could ensure the safety of the refugees, hunt down the militias, ensure that food is delivered where it is most needed and put an end to the genocide that's been the shame of all civilized nations for nearly a decade.

But the Sudanese caught in the crossfire are not sitting on reserves of oil; there is no semi-professional army that BushCo. can claim - while standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier - to have defeated in a couple of days. Instead of fueling a growing Islamic backlash against the West, our soldiers could be saving lives in a part of the world that has given up on hope or help.