Iraq, Darfur, Both, or Neither?

Lawrence Kaplan presents an insightful perspective on Iraq versus Darfur.  In a nutshell, his view is that many of the objections to U.S. military intervention in Iraq apply as well in Darfur.   He also rightly emphasizes that waiting for UN or NATO action is a waste of time; intervention will occur if and only if the U.S. goes it alone.

    

My answer to the question in the post’s title is “neither.”  The situations are not identical.  But in both cases, the costs of intervention are large and the scope for making things worse rather than better is substantial.