“Peace is the work of Justice”

President George Bush attended the groundbreaking of the United States Institute of Peace headquarters and Public Education Center today. Bush spoke in support of USIP and the work that they are doing to promote peace. He spoke of his personal interest in the pursuit of peace, citing the current war in Iraq as a means to spreading democracy and justice throughout the globe, as a national security interest for the United States, an international interest for countries to be safe and secure and that “peace is the work of justice.” Bush said that freedom is an unalienable right that needs to be protected and sought after by every nation.

President Bush also outlined some objectives and legislation that he was working to get passed in order to have operations to deploy whenever there is a need to work for peace: the global peace initiative as well as standby reserve corps of on-call former government workers and professionals who can be sent out to struggling countries who need assistance working for peace and freedom. Bush said that the United States needs to work with other countries, governments as well as non-governmental organizations to train peace keepers and help maintain global freedom, saying that he hopes the United States will never become “isolationist and nervous” when interacting with other countries.

Also in attendance at the groundbreaking was Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Pelosi spoke about the work of the USIP and the peaceful solutions they have made in Rwanda, Kosovo and Sudan saying that it is “peace that makes life worth living.” She praised the USIP for working for and establishing peace for the globe and not just Americans, working towards a helpful, generous and peaceful world.

Reid said that the world has never seeing a fighting force like the United States, which spend billions of dollars on a military, but that also works on “smart power.” This smart power is the ability to create peace, which is just as important as the winning wars. “If there were ever a bipartisan effort, it’d be peace,” Reid said.

All speakers praised the USIP’s efforts to ensure peace globally and stated their excitement for the new building’s completion. The United States Institute of Peace was founded in 1984, it is an independent nonpartisan national institution that was established and funded by Congress to promote peace and resolve international conflicts. The new building costs more than 200 million dollars and covers a 150,000 square-foot area north of the Lincoln Memorial.

Darfur not the issue

Andrew S. Natsios, former U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, spoke of the looming civil war in Sudan along with the impending failure of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the nation’s second civil war. After the loss of the two major players involved with this peace agreement, Natsios stressed the serious weakening of all that the agreement signified.

Natsios said that the American population must focus on Sudan as a whole rather then simply focusing on the province of Darfur. He said that the problems in Darfur cannot be solved until the nation is politically and militarily united as a whole.

Natsios further talked of the divided nation not in terms of north versus south, but rather of the Nile River Arabs versus the rest of the country. According to the “Black Book”, which contains a study of the elites who have run the country of Sudan, 70 percent of those in power have been Nile River Arabs even though they make up only 4.5 percent of the overall population of Sudan. Natsios explained that the Nile River Arabs are afraid of losing the massive of amount of control they posses, fearing that their four tribes will be massacred along with the collapse of the Sunni state.

Natsios said the United States is not going to be able to fix Sudan, saying it does not have the influence, leverage, or power that is needed. Natsios also said that the situation in Sudan is much more complex than those of Iraq and Afghanistan. According to Natsios, in order to reach peace in Sudan, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement must be put back on track, the nation must reach a political agreement on the distribution of their oil, and the country must find a way to equally split and share power across the different tribes.