Jan Pronk, the blogging diplomat, packed up yesterday and went home. Again, it was Pronk's musings on his personal blog that morale was dropping in the national army that so angered Khartoum. (The U.N. HR department is, we imagine, putting the finishing touches on that employee blogging policy as we speak.) His expulsion was a decision made by the ruling National Congress Party, and the other members of the government -- particulary those from the southern part of the country -- aren't too happy that they made it unilaterally.

That the government is internally divided is a reminder that using "Khartoum" as a gloss for the Sudanese government under Bashir, as I sometimes do, is probably just as useful as how U.S. news professionals use "Washington" for all things George Bush.

And as it turns out, Khartoum -- about 600 miles from some parts of Darfur -- is actually something of a thriving small city, of over a million people. There's a BMW dealership, the economy is booming, and oil money is flowing. Glistening new supermarkets are now chockablock with Pringles. Bridges, hospitals, and schools are being built. The violence and starvation in Darfur must seem very far away from what's going on in the capital city.

Sudan as a whole is still desperately poor, yes -- the per capita income in 2005 stood at $640. But things are different in Khartoum. Sudan's oil reserves are fueling a growing urban wonderland, a mini and rudimentary Dubai. And even without the U.S., foreign investment rose to $2.3 billion this year. That puts the government in a pretty good position to resist U.S. demands that they stop funding and directing the attacks on some part of their rural population. All of which makes one wonder whether the U.S. Congress really thought that oil sanctions and visa denials were going to be a factor in bringing an end to the violence in the country's remote western region.