Posted on 06/27/2003 12:33:54 PM PDT by 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.
AfricaWatch:
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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 | ||||||
ZWNEWS.com - linking the world to Zimbabwe 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 -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." 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...
backhoe |
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.
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