In spite of some pressure from the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and the African Union, the murdering in Darfur and of refugees from there has continued unabated. The death and displacement toll has now reached the point that this tragedy ranks among the greatest in modern times.

The press covered the crisis sporadically, but for the most part, the media catered to the world's appetite for the latest political intrigue, the overworked debate about going to war in Iraq and, of course, the weather.

While hundreds died in hurricanes and on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands died in the once gentle land of western Sudan.

The Sudanese government claimed it did not sanction or support the "Janjaweed" Arabs, who with their private militias pillaged, raped and murdered their way through the province of Darfur with impunity. Yet the numerous eyewitness accounts of government aircraft bombing and strafing in conjunction with militia attacks from horseback make it piercingly evident that the government is responsible for the deaths of its citizens.

The UN's World Food Program reports that 3.5 million people are hungry, 2.5 million have been forced from their homes and 400,000 have died.

The crisis was too big for any one or group of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) or private charities to resolve. It truly requires the international community to support the African Union in forcing Sudan's government to stop the carnage. Yet Sudan's neighbors and the world community of nations have failed miserably to come to the rescue of Darfur.

This is largely an intra-Muslim dispute, as Arab Muslims kill and savage black Muslims. Since Sudan's government is a radical Islamic government, perhaps this has caused the world to use kid gloves in dealing with it.

The pressure from the outside world, such as it was, was too little. The government was plainly willing to do whatever was necessary to maintain power, and it unleashed the Arabs to "clean out" rebel elements. Washington, London, Brussels, Moscow, Beijing and other world capitals should have spoken loudly and often about the evil taking place.

The Muslim world's leaders kept their lips closed, saying little to condemn the slaughter, to condemn the inhumanity or to pressure Sudan to cease.

Truly, the world stood by—and stands by, still, to its monumental shame.