The government of Sudan, you might recall has been engaged in "ethnic cleansing" in the Danfur region of the country. The UN has been dragging it's feet for months and until the US Secretary of State Colin Powell visted the region, they had done little but study the situation. The US, meanwhile has been working the street.
Now it has come to the point where the US is asking the UN to impose sanctions against Sudan, but according to the BBC, France will oppose such sanctions.
Why would France oppose a non-violent measure to attempt to stop genocide?
Perhaps the answer is oil.
France's TotalFinaElf has oil interests in Sudan, just as they had oil interests in Iraq. France tried to have the sanctions against Iraq lifted in 1997 but the Clinton administration refused to cooperate.
I wonder if one can discern a pattern here.
Interestingly, Canada, China, Sweden and Austria, all have oil interests in Sudan.
The US doesn't.
When push comes to shove, Colin Powell said it best:
"All I know is that there are at least 1 million people who are desperately in need, and many of them will die if we can't get the international community mobilized and if we can't get the Sudanese to cooperate with the international community."
France has a long history of enabling dictators for personal gain and it seems that trend is not going to come to an end any time soon.
(hat tip to Instapundit)