More News Columnists

• Bill Slakey: As Trib closes, many questions remain unasked
• Phill Casaus: Don't cry for us, Albuquerque; it was worth it
• Joline Gutierrez Krueger: My Wall of Fame holds memories of people, stories that have mattered

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

In view of the enormity of the stakes at hand, one must give substantial consideration to Gov. Bill Richardson and his trip to the moving meltdown that is Darfur. For this Richardson watcher, actions speak louder than words. The fact that he was there, where angels have thus far feared to tread, is large.

It's also the first step in picturing Richardson in the upcoming presidential sweepstakes. It won't be the White House, but Richardson should, and will, become this nation's next secretary of state.

There's no way right now he'd be thinking it, but this trip, despite its somewhat disappointing conclusion, makes it a fait accompli. Watch close, because the stars are lining up.

Besides, is there any shame in this position rather than president? It could in fact be the stuff of something special.

I was reminded during the remembrances for President Ford of then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and his trip to South Africa in the summer of 1976, and the throwdown he put on the Afrikaners. He made a speech calling for an end to apartheid and for racial justice on the entire African continent as "an imperative of our own moral heritage."

Darfur, 2007, and Pretoria, 1976. Majority rule versus minority justice. This is starting to sound familiar.

Darfur and the battle raging between the Sudanese government, with help from Arab tribal militias (known as the janjaweed), and Darfur's ethnic African rebels has been nothing short of a horror. Ethnic minorities representing 2.5 million people are fighting decades of abuse by the Khartoum government with 200,000 dead as a result.

The details of it are mind numbing and, to be fair, confusing. That, however, is no excuse for the relative silence on this issue, officially or otherwise. That our president has labeled it a genocide and then done basically nothing since is leaving a very bad taste here, Iraq distractions be damned.

It is rare in this world when you can truly say there is one and only one man or woman right for a situation. This is one, and Richardson is it.

OK, so the week didn't result in permission to allow U.N. troops enter the country. There is, however, a verbal promise of a 60-day cease-fire. Beyond that, was peace really a possibility? Kofi Annan couldn't find a way last May.

Even so, Richardson put Darfur back on the front pages, where it belongs, and he also gained a base of knowledge about a conflict we must help resolve.

I felt an enormous amount of pride seeing pictures of our governor in the room with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

That he was the go-between between al-Bashir and the leaders of the Sudanese Liberation Movement Army is the kind of high-stakes shuttle diplomacy we have not seen in forever. Bullets are flying, and he was there.

In the 1970s, rioting in Soweto and other areas resulted in a lot of dead "coloreds" - parlance for South Africans of mixed blood. The situation could not continue unabated - 18 million blacks and 2.3 million coloreds were under the thumb of 4.2 million whites. All the while then-South African Prime Minister B.J. Vorster vowed to his party's faithful that colored people would never sit in the nation's all-white Parliament.

History had another plan. Ford and Kissinger were right to do it, given the results here and abroad.

Kissinger was assailed by House Republican leadership at the time for potentially trashing their "Southern strategy" in the upcoming primary for Ford. That was an amazing example of ignorance in hindsight, but mucking in African affairs is no small political matter.

"Fixing" Darfur could turn into something ugly, as well. It's a risk, but you know what? Lives are stake; 200,000 is enough.

Here it is, again. I don't think this is the presidential cycle for Richardson. And secretary of state isn't a sure road to the West Wing in a different cycle, given the circumstances around the globe. But this is his time.

Go ahead and campaign, guv. Do your thing, but this audition is for the job you were born to do.