For more than 50 years, ever since the Sudan gained independence in 1956, the northern Muslims, who like to think of themselves as "Arabs" -- that is, the people to whom Islam was given, and therefore the best of all peoples -- have been conducting, with occasional breaks, a Jihad against the black Africans, Christian and animist, in the south. The northern Muslims have been responsible for the deaths of 2.5 million black Africans in the south. But that Jihad received very little attention, despite the efforts of some -- apparently easy to dismiss because some could be linked to Christian missionaries -- and Gaston Biro, the U.N. special rapporteur for Sudan, was constantly frustrated and ignored in his efforts to draw attention to this Jihad, conducted by a member state of the U.N. and, of course, backed to the hilt by its fellow members in the Arab League.

It was only when the northern Muslims turned to rape, pillage, and mass murder of fellow, but African rather than Arab, blacks in Darfur (formerly Dar Fur), that the West started to pay attention. Pressure built, and all kinds of Hollywood celebrities made it to Darfur, and there is nothing like having George Clooney on your side to help make your case in the corridors of power. The northern Sudanese finally saw that they might lose too much, so they pretended to acquiesce in independence for the South Sudan. But they had their eyes on the prize -- the oil that by rights belongs entirely to the South Sudan, given where it is located -- and since that splitting of Sudan into two states, have conducted war by proxy against black Africans in the states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan, in the hope of killing or driving out so many that they could solidify their position, in territories peopled by black Africans with ties to the South Sudan, and expand their power southward, into more and more of the oil regions.

The world paid no attention, save for a few experts such as Professor Eric Reeves at Smith, to this aggression in Blue Nile and South Kordofan. And when the Southern Sudanese, who after all had lost 2.5 million people over many decades of slow Jihad, decided to fight back, this was depicted as "aggression" by them -- see the remarks of American ambassador Princeton Lyman, who apparently has forgotten the last fifty years of Sudanese history and mass murder.

Now that war continues, and it is a war that the Americans should enter, quickly, by simply eliminating the air force of the Muslim Arabs in the north. That would take a few hours, to destroy their planes and helicopters and helicopter gunships. And that would be it. That would be enough. That would be a signal, as the Americans are leaving Afghanistan as they left Iraq, that there will be no more nation-buidling, no more transfer of wealth to grasping Muslim states and peoples, no more attempt to win unwinnable hearts and minds, but there would be opposition to violent Jihad, met with and suppressed by the more effective violence of the non-Muslim West. This would alarm the Arabs, and the Muslims, and we want them to be alarmed. And this would hearted Christians in black Africa, and we want them to be heartened.

That's it.

Here's the story, from Reuters:

JUBA/KHARTOUM (Reuters) - South Sudan said Sudan attacked it with aerial bombing raids and ground artillery on Monday and Tuesday, accusing Khartoum of trying to sabotage international efforts for peace talks which the African Union hopes to restart next week.

Juba said its armed forces could retaliate if Sudan made further assaults, raising the prospect of a return to the fighting which the United Nations and the AU are seeking to prevent.

The two armies fought in border skirmishes last month after disputes over oil exports and border demarcation boiled over, following South Sudan's birth as an independent nation in July.

The attacks on Monday and Tuesday targeted the area of Werguet, about 30km (19 miles) inside South Sudan's territory in Northern Bahr Al Ghazal state, officials told a news conference.

Sudan's army spokesman, al-Sawarmi Khalid, could not be reached on his mobile phone. There was no immediate independent confirmation of South Sudan's allegations, and limited access to remote border areas makes such verification difficult.

South Sudanese Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said Sudan's "acts of aggression" violated a May 2 resolution by the U.N. Security Council which ordered both sides to cease hostilities and settle their differences through negotiations or face sanctions.

Juba has accused Sudan of other attacks since May 2.

"This is a slap in the face of the United Nations and the African Union," Benjamin said.

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been shuttling between Khartoum and Juba as AU mediator in the past few days, said he expected talks between the neighbors to resume next week.

"So the (AU) panel will be convening that meeting next week as agreed by the presidents of two countries," Mbeki said after meeting Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in Khartoum. He had met South Sudan's President Salva Kiir on Monday.

"Now we have an agreement between President Bashir and President Salva Kiir that the two panels of negotiation ... they will meet next week and look at all elements of the decision taken by the AU and the U.N. Security Council," he added.

Neither side immediately confirmed a meeting next week.

Barnaba said South Sudan's delegation was ready to fly to Addis Ababa but the question was whether Sudan wanted to talk. "We are ready to talk anytime," he told Reuters.

Ibrahim Ghandour, a senior official in Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP), repeated the government position that Sudan wanted to make peace but security issues had to be treated as priority.

"President Bashir told President Mbeki that Sudan was committed to long lasting peace with South Sudan," he told reporters after the meeting. He did not say when talks might resume.

Khartoum accuses Juba of supporting rebels in Sudan's border states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, charges denied by South Sudan.