George Clooney wants us to Save Darfur. He apparently discovered what the rest of the world has known for several years, that there is a systematic war between an Islamic government and the largely Christian peoples in the south of the Sudan. Now he wants us to…well, I’m not sure. I clicked over to his site, and apparently he wants us to send a note to Bush and Congress to do something.

OK, what?

It’s not like nobody’s doing anything. The UN has had peacekeeping forces in there at various points, and has been encouraging something approaching a peace process. The US and other countries have been providing aid–a woman I met at a party a few months back was going there to replace someone from USAID who had been killed.

This picture [hat tip: Hit & Run] suggests various people want to pick up our troops from Iraq, where we’re fighting an endless war with ill-defined goals and no criteria for ending our involvement, and move them to Darfur, where we’d be fighting an endless war with ill-defined goals and no criteria for ending our involvement.

Or does our criteria pop up when we get humiliated so badly they make a movie out of it? Yeah, this didn’t work out so well in Somalia, another Bush-family involvement. So why are progressives trying to take a page from Bush? On the theory that we did a lot of good in Somalia? Or just trying to assuage guilt for Rwanda, damn the consequences? Or just feeling “Injustice Bad–Progressive Hulk Smash!”?

Seriously, the less you’re like Bush, the better your policy will turn out. I’m not thrilled with what’s going on in Darfur, but it’s not like nothing is being done, nor is there an easy solution just waiting for the application of a few bombs or a couple of bucks.

Now, I await the neocon chickenhawks’ agreement with Clooney, given that this is a clear attempt for Muslims to gain control from non-Muslims, and thus aid the creation of a new Caliphate or something.