Great analysis, but I have two problems.

First:

“Pity and compassion…are alien to the natural world.”

My assumption is that you didn’t actually intend to say this, so I’m not going to bother going over the problems with this statement in detail. Simply, it 1) ignores the fact that humans are part of the natural world, 2) ignores the fact that humans are not the only species capable of feeling pity or compassion, and 3) even if we take it to mean, “the gods/forces of natural/natural laws that run the universe are not capable of feeling pity or compassion,” rather than talking about the emotional capacity of biological life-forms, it’s still not a verifiable (or, in my opinion, likely-to-be-accurate) statement.

Second:

(This point is related to the comment you posted, Jason, which I appreciated).

My understanding of Darfur is limited. But from what I’ve gathered, the conflict is between nomadic pastoral (pastoralism not in my view being an exceptional lifestyle, nor dependant upon symbiosis with an agricultural community, see the Chuk’chi, but that’s a different argument) tribes against an Islamic state.

I agree, of course, that the enlightened First World should not pull an intervention. I agree with essentially every statement you made. But I would add this: IF there has to be a genocide there (and there probably does); and IF I’m even vaguely correct about the battle lines; THEN I would personally much prefer that the brunt of the genocide-burden fell on the Muslim statists. Again, if I’m correct, then part of the reason for the population problem is the existance of the state infrastructure. No “nomadic tribes and barbarians” (I THINK I remember that as the exact phrase used by the central government to describe the threatened population) could cause a population crisis of this nature. If the government wins, then as in Rwanda the stage will already be set for another “Malthusian hell.”

Of course, if the US did intervene and topple the Islamic government, it would be under the guise of the “War on Terror,” and it would certainly not lead to any resolution of the ecological problem–in fact it would probably exacerbate it. I do not want any of these things to happen–but the fact remains that one side of this conflict is morally superior to the other, and I wish them victory.

It’s also worth remembering that in Rwanda and currently in the Congo the remaining hunter-gatherer bands were and are the most vulnerable of all the ethnic groups involved.