TALKING POINTS: HOPE FOR DARFUR

Over the last two years, a campaign of ethnic cleansing has killed more than 400,000 people in the Darfur region of Sudan. Although an African Union peacekeeping force has been in the region for over a year, at least 500 people are killed there each day. President Bush and Secretary-General Annan agree: to stop the killings in Darfur, there is no alternative to a UN peacekeeping force.

• When the chips are down, you've got to send in your A Team.
  The UN has a long track record of success in peacekeeping. A 2005 study by the RAND Corporation concluded that the UN has a high rate of success in post-conflict environments - higher even than the U.S. - because it is cost-effective, experienced, and regarded as legitimate by the international community.
   

• The UN has all the right stuff to stop the genocide.
  The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations has the know-how and the resources to get the job done well.
   

• The UN can put Darfur on the map in ways no one else can.
  Given Khartoum's opposition to intervention, it is crucial that the international community unite to stop the genocide. Only the UN can build an international consensus for action. 
   

• The UN has a foothold in Sudan.
  The UN already has a presence in Sudan - a mission to enforce the cease-fire in the 20-year civil war between North and South. This existing mission would give the UN a head start in replacing the African Union force in Darfur.

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