Darfur conflict stokes Chad-Sudan tensions This article speaks of just one such regional war that the US and Europeans are lighting up in Africa, but neglects to speak of the French and US governments’ roles in this conflict.
Plus, more importantly, it fails to give the context of how the US and Europeans are also behind multiple other regional conflicts in Africa, such as In Kenya, Zimbabwe, Somali-Ethiopia-Eritrea, Eastern Congo-Rwanda-Burundi-etc., and the list goes on and on. What should Americans do to help stop these conflicts?
The simple answer to that last question is that we should build a Movement to get the US and Europeans out of other countries’ affairs, rather than into them, as many foolish liberals have been constantly doing. We do not need or want our US public tax dollars going for a supposedly humanitarian imperialism, coated with a syrupy vocabulary of supposed concern for Africans. Charity needs to start at home, and liberals that want to run around the planet with the Pentagon intervening everywhere are just short of brain dead, in our opinion.
No More Militarism! No more Wars! It’s time to break multinational corporate power, not cheer it on. Help the people of Darfur, Sudan, and Chad by getting the Europeans and US out of their affairs and allowing them to develop their own economies without multinational corporate control.
“This article speaks of just one such regional war that the US and Europeans are lighting up in Africa, but neglects to speak of the French and US governments’ roles in this conflict. Plus, more importantly, it fails to give the context of how the US and Europeans are also behind multiple other regional conflicts in Africa, such as In Kenya, Zimbabwe, Somali-Ethiopia-Eritrea, Eastern Congo-Rwanda-Burundi-etc., and the list goes on and on. ”
I have seen nothing to support the claim above. What evidence is there for this proposition? The U.S. has provided military aid to the South Sudanese government, after it gained autonomy, in connection with a negotiated peace dael, after its people were slaughtered en masse by Sudanese government forces, but the U.S. didn’t meaningfully cause that conflict.
At most, colonial powers left abruptly in a manner that was destabilizing, and global commodity markets (e.g. in the case of Sudan, for oil, in the case of Congo, mineral commodities) are making what the parties are fighting over valuable.
The main role of world powers in these conflicts, which have been left to fester in a largely hands off way, has been to ineffectually urge peaceful settlement.
Africans are perfectly capable of slaughtering each other without meaningful outside assistance (yes, private, rogue arms dealers have engaged in business with the parties, but that doesn’t make sovereignties responsible). In Rwanda, they mostly used fire, machetes, and AM radio.
Direct military intervention will often be the wrong choice, but laissez-faire makes no more sense in geopolitics than it does in economics.
I disagree with you, ohwilleke, on your statement that ‘At most, colonial powers left abruptly in a manner that was destabilizing’. This is far from being the case, and to this day France remains deeply involved in its former colony’s affairs (Chad), whereas Britain and the US have hardly departed from intervening and controlling the affairs of GB’s former colonies, Egypt and Sudan. They haven’t really left at all.
Most Americans seem to think that African affairs occur in some sort of weird international vacuum, much as they thought much the same about the manufactured breakup of Yugoslavia. They seem to be blind to the manipulations of the imperialist super powers into the national affairs of multinational regions of areas, oftentimes previously directly colonized. They cannot seem to see that stirring up ethnic and national hatreds comes about from much more than just the local squabbling.
As to the role of the US government? It has some of the dirtiest hands of all in fomenting ethnic conflicts in Africa, and to turn a blind eye to this blood soaked history can only lead to rather mistaken conclusions that ‘The main role of world powers in these conflicts, which have been left to fester in a largely hands off way, has been to ineffectually urge peaceful settlement.’
That being said, the conflicts have roots also deeply sunk into centuries long local fights. No doubt about that. But then again, look what the Whites in South Africa once did with those internecine conflicts to their own advantage. We cannot expect any better today from continued US and European interference on the continent.