Congo, Liberia & The Hard Edge of American Values

The Atlantic ^ | July 2003 | Robert Kaplan interview

[katman]

There's a lot of debate these days about the Congo, Liberia, and what the USA should do. What if the answer is "nothing"? How do we make choices like that?

This 5-way discussion among liberals and conservatives addresses some of these issues, providing solid background on the situations and history at play in The Congo & Liberia, the limits on foreign intervention, and the USA's capacity to intervene.

We can't be everywhere. As Kaplan notes, we need to be in some of these places. How do we think about those choices?

Sometimes, too, the depressing answer to how much we can do is: "not much" -- or "not much, unless we're prepared to jettison many of our existing beliefs." In which case, tragedy may be all that's left. Sometimes, in a fallen world where human evil is real, the only legacy for the future is a cautionary tale.

[JohnGalt]

A lot of debate my arse.

Maybe between the Frum Republicans and the Wilsonian Democrats, but I repeat myself.

[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

[Lorianne]

Great article. Thanks for posting. Kaplan is one of our best thinkers (and writers) in this age of empire.

[liberallarry]

A few months ago the Atlantic published an article entitled "The Mind of George W. Bush". The author noted that Bush had sought out a private interview with Kaplan prior to deciding to go to war with Iraq. That alone convinced me that the Administration knew what it was doing.

[happygrl]

Excellent article and great links starting off on neo-sovereignty, then on to neocolonialism, the use of Mercenaries in Africa, and the disasters in the Congo and Zimbabwe.

I spent several hours pusuing them.

Kaplan is the best mind writing on the third world morass. His article The Coming Anarchy written in 1994 was prescient in light of what has happened since from the Philippines to Indonesia to Pakistan to the Middle East and sub-Sahara Africa.