In less than two weeks, Americans will select the next president who is responsible for taking strong actions on Darfur.

We’ve set a goal of collecting 20,000 new postcards for the next president before Election Day.

A stack of urgent messages from Darfur activists will be waiting for him when he sits down in the Oval Office in January. Make sure yours is among them. Send your postcard, and be one of 20,000 new voices for peace.

We’ve come such a long way with your help. People are alive today in Darfur because we raised our voices together. And your consistent work has sparked strong words on Darfur from our nation’s leaders. Look at what we’ve accomplished just this year:

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I saw in the Washington Post Express today that they’re playing at a local club on Thursday night.  “Who the heck are they???,” you’re probably asking.

They are a Czech punk rock band from the 60s and 70s – they were harassed and oppressed by the Communist government for playing their music, and in 1976 they were arrested and put on trial for “disturbing the peace.”

The trial inspired Vaclav Havel and other dissidents to draft and sign Charter 77, demanding basic human rights for the Czech people.  It also led him to write a famous and prescient essay called “The Power of the Powerless.”

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After billions spent, countless hours of debate, and an endless stream of tough words, it is deplorable that the most powerful nations in the world can muster only a ‘half-strength force’ to protect Darfuri civilians. The U.N. has now admitted what has long been clear: the previous promise to deploy 80 percent of the UNAMID force by December will not be kept.  Even the new, reduced goal of 50 percent seems a stretch.  Vitally needed helicopters, trucks and logistics are nowhere in sight. How can that be so?

This ‘half-strength force’ is a product of U.N. member states’ half-strength political will – not just on peacekeepers, but on the Darfur crisis overall. Talking tough about protecting Darfuris is easy; contributing equipment and peacekeepers and overcoming Sudanese government intransigence as part of a comprehensive strategy for peace is not. Speaking in platitudes about justice and accountability is easy; standing behind the ICC chief prosecutor is not. Calling for peace is easy; putting sustained effort into creating a viable and inclusive peace process is not.  Deploring violence is easy; but calling out China, Russia, and others for arming a genocidal regime is not.

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The Sudanese military attacked the Kalma camp for displaced persons in South Darfur this week, gunning down civilians armed (according to the UN) mostly with “sticks, knives and spears.”  The attack left more than 30 people dead.  The UN denounced the attack as “excessive, disproportionate force.”  But there’s another word for it – criminal.

Which makes it all the more unbelievable that a number of governments are considering UN Security Council action to suspend the International Criminal Court’s Darfur investigation, on the ground that accusing the Sudanese president of crimes impedes progress toward peace.  What progress?  What peace?

Sources tell us that some members of the Security Council seem eager to cut a deal and have suggested some terms to Khartoum.  I hope before doing anything further, they will go to Kalma and ask the relatives of those murdered this week what they think of putting justice on hold.

We commend the U.S. government’s principled decision to abstain from a Security Council vote which unconscionably linked the reauthorization of the UNAMID civilian protection mission to possible legal protection for the architect of the Darfur genocide. The resolution was tainted by unnecessary language aimed at diminishing the role of justice and accountability in this conflict – and which ultimately could accord impunity to a government apparatus accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Leading nations must not blithely bargain away the ICC investigation.

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Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo’s pending charges against al-Bashir underscore the need for the U.N. Security Council to finally act decisively with a comprehensive strategy for Sudan. The world at-large, primarily the Security Council, has allowed al-Bashir to continue his reign of destruction, recalcitrance and violence with utter impunity. These pending charges must now sober al-Bashir’s international apologists who continue to shield and protect the Khartoum regime from meaningful measures with meaningful consequences.

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