George Clooney tops my list of interesting celebrities. While I don't hold the same political views as him much of the time, I respect the fact that he takes the opportunity to actually LEARN about something before speaking off the cuff about it (much of the time, anyway). And, to my own surprise, I am agreeing with him on the need for US involvement in Darfur.

But Clooney has missed something. You see, the reasons we should get involved in Darfur are the same reasons we were right to get involved in Iraq. And (sorry, conservatives) the same reasons we were right to get involved in Bosnia. Because, while we shouldn't play the role of world police, we should listen to the cries of the oppressed as they cry out for our help while living in the shadow of a horrible regime. The people in Darfur need us, as they are unable to secure their liberties against their government on their own.

Clooney also seems to be unaware of the fact that we cannot, according to our own military policy, engage in military action in Darfur until the Afghanistan or Iraq conflict is finalized. Policy states that we cannot be engaged in more than two wars at any one time, and common sense supports that policy. Add to that we have a number of troops who are overworked, exhausted, and desperate to see their families, and it would stand to reason we should attempt to finish the war on both fronts before engaging in Darfur.

And this is where Clooney gets my hackles up. By allying with the contingent who would organize protests against this administration, Clooney is extending the conflicts in the middle east. As long as terror networks know they will get positive press and the label of "freedom fighters" for blowing people up, they will continue to do so. And the longer we are engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan, the longer the people in Darfur will suffer.

In addition to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have a border conflict brewing that will be increasingly hard to ignore. We cannot commit all of our forces in international theaters when we desperately need them to secure the borders domestically. And we cannot expect our troops, who have already given so much, to give all they have left, especially when they will come home to be spit on by a nation that failed to learn the lessons of Vietnam.

And so, I will concede to Clooney his main talking point: the need to act in Darfur. But we cannot act until we are capable of acting without exhausting our troops. And that cannot happen until the theaters in Iraq and Afghanistan are brought to a safe conclusion.