UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited the region to see for himself and to “lock in” earlier diplomatic progress towards peace in the ravished region. Just a month ago, the UN Security Council, passed an Anglo/American/French resolution authorizing a 26,000 member military and police force called UNAMID to be deployed to the region early next year. The resolution passed at long last only because the People’s Republic of China, one of Islamic Sudan’s political allies and trading partners, finally agreed to a compromise text.

Given that Beijing feared the shadow of an Olympic Boycott next year, China thought it prudent to cut a deal. Still Sudan’s oil wealth and the cozy commercial ties with communist China, assures Khartoum that it has a comrade on the Security Council to block any really intrusive actions.

Ban said, “My goal is to lock in the progress we have made so far ... to build on it so that this terrible trauma many one day cease.” Ban concedes sending the hybrid force is only which will be “one of the largest and most complex field operations the United Nations has ever undertaken, and together with the African Union the work is will under way.” He warned of the massive logistical effort needed to insert a force into a vast, desolate, and lawless region.

After visiting one of the refugee camps Ban admitted to being “shocked and humbled.”

Deploying this Hybrid UN military force to one of Africa’s most remote and harshest places evokes both committee planning, bureaucratic compromise, and seems like sending a hybrid plug-in car into a place fit only for Land Rovers or Hummers. The Darfur region is the size of France, with few roads and water resources and communications. Sending a 26,000 unit is putting it politely — understaffed and underwhelming.

Ban concedes that “Peacekeeping alone is not enough. It must be accompanied by a political solution.” So the Secretary General met with Sudan’s ruler Omar al-Bashir to work out details. In the now-thriving oil boomtown Sudanese capital Khartoum, Ban and Bashir did a deal to presumably settle a problem which should have been solved by former Secretary General Kofi Annan. Darfur rebel factions and the Sudan government will meet in Libya for peace talks in late October.

Coming on the eve of the new UN General Assembly in which the Darfur issue will rightly remain one of the prominent humanitarian and security themes, Ban’s trip is well timed and aims to put the diplomatic ducks in the row for the next phase, sending in the UN military force to protect civilians and monitor food aid for four million people.

Still given the scope and level of violence in Darfur, proclaiming that the newly minted UNAMID force will be in place in a few months (and that’s optimistic) is like saying that with a out of control fire in progress, “Fear not — the Fire Department is on the way — they will arrive in a few months. Sit tight. ” Am I missing something?

Mind you many of the very same people who caustically criticize the Bush Administration for the military coalition effort in Iraq would be quick to commit American and European troops to another percolating conflict far more murky and with far fewer direct national interests. Here we see a wretched Sudanese regime (mostly Arab/ Muslim) using Arab Janjaweed Muslim militia to kill black African Muslims who in turn have a gaggle of warlords fighting the central government. .

I’m all for saving Darfur from the ravages of Janjaweed, but this is not only America’s mission. Piecing together an effective military force, to operate alongside the generally ineffective African Union deployment (also too little, too late) will take time and logistical efforts. China has already committed a 400 man engineering unit. Still NATO troops, very likely American military airlift, and a long open-ended commitment will be needed in this complex African crisis.

Darfur’s humanitarian disaster begs for help. Genocide cannot be condoned. Still sending troops into lawless hornets nest of Islamic militias may widen resentments in the Arab world and could trigger yet unplanned consequences. The mission may not prove as clear cut as it appears