[ken5050]

Remember the"anti-colonial fervor" of the 60's...kicked all the Europeans out of African colonies...createda whole bunch of nations that weren't ready for self-governance....well, they created 50 years of misery..killed tens of millions, and the living standards in Africa are WORSE than a half-century ago...

[umgud]

Africa has more than enough resources to not only support its masses, but to become an economic giant. Its inhabitants have proven (pre & post colonialism) that they simply are not capable of self rule.

[Dutch Boy]

I totally agree. Africa used to be a supplier of food products to the world. Now the many of African people are starving. The biggest "aid" they need is ridding the corrupt government. Continuous food drives do nothing except prolong the fact they will die sometime a little later down the road.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

[Substitute any Marxist hell hole] What the Afghans need is colonizing What will we do this time round?-- By Mark Steyn. [Excerpt] Will we stick Zahir Shah back on his throne to preside over a ramshackle coalition of mutually hostile Commies, theocrats and gangsters, and hope the poor old gentleman hangs in there till we've cleared Afghan airspace? Or will we understand Osama bin Laden's declaration of war on pluralism for what it is? The most unstable parts of the world today are on the perimeter between Islam and the infidel -- places such as the Sudan, where vast numbers of Christians have been slaughtered -- and given the vast illegal immigration of Muslims into western Europe and elsewhere that perimeter is expanding. Afghanistan needs not just food parcels, but British courts and Canadian police and Indian civil servants and U.S. town clerks and Australian newspapers. So does much of the rest of the region. Given the billions of dollars of damage done to the world economy by September 11th, massive engagement in the region will be cheaper than the alternative.

America has prided itself on being the first non-imperial superpower, but the viability of that strategy was demolished on September 11th. For its own security, it needs to do what it did to Japan and Germany after the war: civilize them. It needs to take up (in Kipling's words), "the white man's burden," a phrase that will have to be modified in the age of Colin Powell and Condi Rice but whose spirit is generous and admirable. [End Excerpt]