How to ignore war

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Wednesday, May 28, 2003

[presidio9]

HIGH ON the list of the world's shamefully ignored problems is the Congo civil war, going on five years. Faraway battlegrounds, intractable feuds and a diamonds-and-gold black market collude to kill hopes of finding peace.

Europe and the United States may be dazzled by the high-tech walkover that was the Iraq War, but the conflict of Congo is more typical of modern warfare: Throwaway land mines, gun-wielding children and massacres of families are accepted tactics of warlords who answer to no one.

[MisterMetternich]

Then what do we make of all the rhetoric concerning Iraqi Freedom?

"Men and women in every culture need liberty like they need food, and water, and air. Everywhere that freedom arrives, humanity rejoices.

And everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.

We have difficult work to do in Iraq.

We are bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous. We are pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime, who will be held to account for their crimes.

We have begun the search for hidden chemical and biological weapons, and already know of hundreds of sites that will be investigated.

We are helping to rebuild Iraq, where the dictator built palaces for himself, instead of hospitals and schools for the people.

And we will stand with the new leaders of Iraq as they establish a government of, by, and for the Iraqi people.

The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort.

Our coalition will stay until our work is done. Then we will leave - and we will leave behind a free Iraq."



The moral imperative was doubtless part of the drive, and should drive us into Africa to help these far more desperate people.

[backhoe]

... anyone who is doubtful about the situation there, or perhaps curious about how much goes unmentioned & unreported by the laughingly-misnamed "watchdog press" need only click the "keyword: Africa Watch" or go here:

AfricaWatch:

To find all articles tagged or indexed using AfricaWatch, click below:
	click here >>>	AfricaWatch	<<< click here
(To view all FR Bump Lists, click here)

Daily Reports Rhodesia

Rhetoric of blame is now a white lie (AFRICA, HEAL THYSELF)
The Daily Telegraph ^ | September 3, 2002 | Tim Butcher
"I remember Africa in the 1960s, everyone was filled with high expectations after independence. Forty years on, Africa is a series of kleptocracies, many worse off than they were under colonial rule. Almost all of the common people in relative worse shape to the rest of the world than they were before independence. Africans after 40 years have no one to blame but their own leadership for their problems. The leaders want to deflect blame to the West. The West's not buying it anymore..."

CIA -- The World Factbook -- Zimbabwe

First it was Rhodesia then SA now America paying the price of silence.

-A Capsule History of Southern Africa--

Parallels between Apartheid SA & USA today

South African Crime Report

ZWNEWS.com - linking the world to Zimbabwe
... Books & Videos. Degrees in Violence: Robert Mugabe and the Struggle for Power
In Zimbabwe This book tells the story of Zimbabwe from the hopeful era of ...

MPR Books - Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African ...

Title: "Cry, the Beloved Country" - Topics: World/South Africa

The Coming Anarchy
February 1994. The Coming Anarchy. by Robert D. Kaplan. ... All rights reserved.

-South Africa - The sellout of a nation--

FYI, I wrote this a while back:

I don't know what will happen in southern Africa beyond a general breakdown into chaos & anarchy... the old bugbear was the Soviets gaining control of the tip & choking our fleet's movements, coupled with control of the mineral wealth. Now it look like Quaddaffi is angling to take over Rhodesia and perhaps spread to South Africa.

At this point, we are 20 years too late, but we can at least bear witness to the debacle.

Bear in mind I am a partisan- I supported ( with reluctance ) the old white-minority governments in Rhodesia and South Africa, because I knew the Communists and their puppets- including proxies like Cuba- were angling for control of southern Africa.

One big problem we have is our media. They have tried to portray the situation in southern Africa as a clone of our own civil-rights struggles when in fact just the opposite was true. Africa is degenerating into chaos and anarchy under the guise of "liberation" and "one man, one vote."
( One time- then forevermore a dictatorship... )
All while the media here turns a blind eye to what is really happening.

What I used to tell people was that while Apartheid was an onerous, offensive system, I would prefer being a black South African under Apartheid to being a person of any color under the old Soviet system- and I still believe those words to be true and correct. Given time, the old South African government would have worked out its problems- but it was not allowed to do so.

Today, we are seeing the results of this folly in Zimbabwe- or rather, we see what tiny bits the web and small elements of talk radio cover.

The whole story of contemporary Africa is a sad tale of tribalism, class warfare, kleptocracy, and massive corruption- and one the media here "won't even talk about" because it does not fit within their template of acceptable ideas.

I would also add, that both the press and entertainment arms of the media encouraged and supported the toppling of the old governments, i. e., they were in collusion, and complicit in the fall. Now that things have worked out at variance with their idealistic fantasies, they simply "don't talk about it..."

"Why do you keep posting this stuff? Nobody cares about Africa, anyway..."

Clive, Cincinatus's Wife, blam, myself, and a few others get asked that occasionally- we are among the keepers of the "AfricaWatch" columns, and we continue to post articles about what I believe will prove to be one of the great, tragic stories of the new century.

The mainstream press never publishes more than one Africa story a day, and it's usually some fluff or dodge around how grim the situation is over there.

But the truth is archived here on Free Republic, and I maintain that one day, when things over there are too awful to be ignored any longer, those who have eyes to see will read the stories here, and be appalled at the silence.

That is all...

-30-

backhoe

[discostu]

National interest should be primary in all foreign matters. The problem with trying to create peace in these situations is the same as the problem for cops during domestic disputes. People innately don't like it when a third party interferes and have a habit of putting aside their differences just long enough to kill the third party. By sticking our nose in somebody else's business we risk getting it bitten off and having no lasting effect. Look at Somalia, these people prefered starving by their own hand to being fed by ours. When they're ready for peace they'll make it themselves.

[Prodigal Son]

We're never going to see a million liberals in downtown London demanding this war stop.

[S.O.S121.500]

Must be your corn hole expressing itself, your cake hole knows better.....Good bye TROLL

[toddst]

The moral imperative was doubtless part of the drive, and should drive us into Africa to help these far more desperate people.

I disagree with you. We went into Iraq to topple monsters who supported terrorism, may have already provided WMD to terrorist groups and were preventing efforts to stabilize the middle east.

We only got into the freedom business in Iraq AFTER we knocked off Saddam's "government" and to assure the country doesn't go back into the terrorism business.

We have no compelling national interest for going into the Congo - and won't IMHO. We have no strategic interest there and the region is not a terrorist threat to the U.S. End of story.

[NovemberCharlie]

Don't jump all over the guy for making a point.

One reason I worried about the humanitarian rhetoric for the war was that it would commit us to playing policeman in every forgotten corner of the world, like here. Unfortunately, it's ovbious that if we don't do something meaningful, no one else is going to in our stead.

Going in may not be practical, but the situation in Africa truly tugs at the heartstrings.