After the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that took more than half a million lives, many Americans bemoaned our ignorance of the longstanding internecine relationship between the powerful minority Tutsis and the angrier majority Hutus.

Many of us, especially our leaders, sought pardon for our country's not intervening to save hundreds of thousands of lives with the excuse, "If only we had known ..."

Our current occupation of Iraq and continuing casualties on both sides repeats this defense. More and more Americans rally against the war as evidence mounts that al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein were not in cahoots, that weapons of mass destruction were nowhere close to being made (much less launched), that the Iraqis were not united in wanting Saddam out and America in.

"If only we had known ..." is our recurrent justification.

America has the opportunity to alter this pattern. We know now that the government of Sudan is conducting an ongoing genocide against the black Africans of Darfur. Thousands have already been killed, and millions more are at risk of fatal disease and starvation as a result of Khartoum's deliberate and genocidal actions.

As 1,000 people die each day, the United States and the United Nations continue to engage in attempts at diplomacy with the very government that is bent on destroying its own people. The U.S. government should follow the lead of Congress and call the events in Darfur by their rightful name - genocide.

The United States and other nations must act to stop the genocide, according to their obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention.

With Sudan, now is the "then" of the notorious plea "If only we had known then what we know now."

Let us not seek atonement in the future for not acting on what we know today. Let us act today to do what is right - and loving. Stop the genocide.

Dr. Victoria Wells Wulsin, a public health physician, is the founder of Cincinnati-based SOTENI International, a non-profit organization dedicated to eradicating AIDS among women and children worldwide.

Want your voice here? Want your voice here?Send your column or proposed topic, 400 words or fewer, along with a photo of yourself, to assistant editorial editor Ray Cooklis at rcooklis@enquirer.com; (513) 768-8525.Send your column or proposed topic, 400 words or fewer, along with a photo of yourself, to assistant editorial editor Ray Cooklis at E-mail rcooklis@enquirer.com; (513) 768-8525.