said a few things that probably got me in a little bit of trouble with him. larry: how about the president of southern sudan, salva kiir, have you meet with him? several times. john knows. we had a good couple hours with him just talking about the possibilities of war, and how resolute they are in not just in the referendum and voting for their independence, but that this area with all the oil, abia is part of the south. and if they tried to peel it off, that would create war. larry: americans facing so many serious issues here at home. we ll ask george and john how that impacts their cause. that s next. we re back with george and john how that papaling packs their cause next.
under his administration. so i think now there s a very intensive look at what best ways we can find to do this without you know, we re in two wars or getting out of one and still escalating another. what we really don t need is any sort of conversations about troops. what we need conversations about is diplomacy. right now, you can do diplomacy. larry: i want to get this right, john. this is for both of you. richard williamson, who served a special envoy for sudan under president bush, has been critical of the obama administration s handling of sudan. he told time magazine last month, khartoum is stronger, juba is weaker, the darfur is forgotten. it s an utter shock to anyone who follows this. what is your response, john? well, that was a month and a half ago, no question richard is right. i think what we re seeing now is a turn-around in american diplomacy. i think you re seeing the
we re back with george and john how that papaling packs their cause next. we re back with george clooney and john prendergast. how much of this fight that you engage in, if we can call it a fight, are you hampered by the fact of americans have greater interests, george? well, you know, sure, there s doannar fatigue in certain ways. we re not asking for any money. hampered, no. because the american people have a tremendous capacity to care. and here s the truth. the truth of the matter is this. if i put it to you like this, if you took two minutes out of your day, out of one day, just today or tomorrow, to write an e-mail, it s a modern day now, we re e-mailing, and twittering and facebooking. write an e-mail to the white house saying, please do everything you can, diplomatly, again, not causing any money, not costing any soldiers. do everything you can. you have my support, even if i didn t vote for you.
we re back with george clooney and john prendergast. how much of this fight that you engage in, if we can call it a fight, are you hampered by the fact of americans have greater interests, george? well, you know, sure, there s doannar fatigue in certain ways. we re not asking for any money. hampered, no. because the american people have a tremendous capacity to care. and here s the truth. the truth of the matter is this. if i put it to you like this, if you took two minutes out of your day, out of one day, just today or tomorrow, to write an e-mail, it s a modern day now, we re e-mailing, and twittering and facebooking. write an e-mail to the white house saying, please do everything you can, diplomatly, again, not causing any money, not costing any soldiers.
the president wants to do something. the republicans have owned this issue as much, if not more than the democrats. everybody wants to do it in a highly politicized time, maybe the most ever. both sides agree. which we don t get much. this is an opportunity for us as citizens to empower these, you know, our senators, our congressmen, our president, to do as much as he possibly can. again, it s very important we keep saying this. this is not about spending money. this is not about using troops. this is about what we do best, which is robust diplomacy. larry: john, does the u.n. have a strong presence in this? the u.n. has a billion-dollar a year peace-keeping mission in southern sudan to go along with the billion-dollar a year peacekeeping mission in darfur. so they re on the ground, not particularly effective as effective as we would like to see them be.