Never let policy get in the way of business

The Decider (TM) stands accused, along with (or is it at the behest of) big business, of undermining efforts to put financial pressure on Sudan over the crisis in Darfur. A bill passed in the house has been altered by the Senate Foriegn Relations committee to remove a clause that authorised states to force public entities to divest interests in companies that do significant business in Sudan or are selling weapons to the regime. White House intervention has been cited as the cause.

Remember the Sudan government is on OUR side in the war on terror so maybe they get a bit of extra latitude in killing their own people.

Bush's current direction appears to be the appointment of a "special envoy". The current candidate for this position, Andrew Natsios, former head of USAID has previously be responsible for providing this little gem in an interview with Ted Koppel:

ANDREW NATSIOS
No, no. This doesn't even compare remotely with the size of the Marshall Plan.

TED KOPPEL
(Off Camera) The Marshall Plan was $97 billion.

ANDREW NATSIOS
This is 1.7 billion.

TED KOPPEL
(Off Camera) All right, this is the first. I mean, when you talk about 1.7, you're not suggesting that the rebuilding of Iraq is gonna be done for $1.7 billion?

ANDREW NATSIOS
Well, in terms of the American taxpayers contribution, I do, this is it for the US. The rest of the rebuilding of Iraq will be done by other countries who have already made pledges, Britain, Germany, Norway, Japan, Canada, and Iraqi oil revenues, eventually in several years, when it's up and running and there's a new government that's been democratically elected, will finish the job with their own revenues. They're going to get in $20 billion a year in oil revenues. But the American part of this will be 1.7 billion. We have no plans for any further-on funding for this.

Current estimates of US portion of the reconstruction costs are now in the hundreds of billions.

When he was at USAID he was also accussed of racism by NGOs.

Perhaps not exactly in the "Heckuva job" Brown category but I wouldn't expect peace to break out anytime soon.