BY ALAN BOSWELL, McClatchy Newspapers
The first anniversary of South Sudan’s independence from Sudan is fast approaching, but the hoped-for peace that was the promise of South Sudan’s creation last July 9 hasn’t materialized. Instead, war seems closer than at any other time since the 2005 peace agreement that U.S. diplomats brokered, and South Sudan’s reputation is in tatters. Many who’d long championed South Sudan are shaking their heads in dismay.