Dr. Susan Rice, former assistant secretary of state for African affairs during the Clinton administration, is on Capitol Hill this morning for her Senate confirmation hearings to become the next United States ambassador to the United Nations. Of all of President-elect Obama’s appointments to date, Dr. Rice has been the most outspoken in her criticism of the Bush administration’s failure to act boldly to end the crisis in Darfur. Dr. Rice’s personal experience as a U.S. diplomat during the Rwandan genocide in 1994 clearly influenced her opinions on the role of the U.S. in intervening to stop genocide:
I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required.
As Change.org’s Stop Genocide blog notes this morning, it is likely that Darfur will be a large part of Dr. Rice’s confirmation hearings today.