(no subject)
You may have heard about the current crisis in the African nation of Congo. All sorts of horrible things keep happening in Africa all the time. Rebellions, genocide, starvation, disease. Millions of people die there. Infant mortality is absolutely abysmal. Children are kidnapped from their families and forced to serve in rebel armies and kill. People are forced into slave labor in diamond mines and executed for lack of production, or just for sport. When the president of Sierra Leone pled for its citizens to “join hands for peace”, the Revolutionary United Force responded by going around and started chopping off the hands of civilians. And of course we all know about the starving people in Ethiopia, and the genocide in Rwanda, and the HIV/AIDS crisis all over the continent.
So why is it that we don’t have troops there? After all, one of the big justifications for the Iraq war was to free the Iraqi people from a horrible dictator who committed all sorts of crimes against humanity. Well, other than the whole “they have weapons of mass destruction” thing too. But we all know that was a lie now. If we needed to “save” the Iraqi people, why don’t we also need to save the people of Sierra Leone? Or Congo? Or Liberia? Why are they not as important as the people of Iraq?
I do agree that the people of Iraq needed help. I do think that Saddam Hussein committed absolutely horrible crimes against humanity and that he needed to be stopped. But things that are just as horrible in other ways are happening in Africa too. Now, I’m not entirely decided as to what the extent of the U.S. role should be in handling foreign crisis. But if we had to help the Iraqi people, why don’t we have to help the African people to the same extent that we “helped” the Iraqi people? Is it because the African people don’t have oil and lots of money?
So why is it that we don’t have troops there? After all, one of the big justifications for the Iraq war was to free the Iraqi people from a horrible dictator who committed all sorts of crimes against humanity. Well, other than the whole “they have weapons of mass destruction” thing too. But we all know that was a lie now. If we needed to “save” the Iraqi people, why don’t we also need to save the people of Sierra Leone? Or Congo? Or Liberia? Why are they not as important as the people of Iraq?
I do agree that the people of Iraq needed help. I do think that Saddam Hussein committed absolutely horrible crimes against humanity and that he needed to be stopped. But things that are just as horrible in other ways are happening in Africa too. Now, I’m not entirely decided as to what the extent of the U.S. role should be in handling foreign crisis. But if we had to help the Iraqi people, why don’t we have to help the African people to the same extent that we “helped” the Iraqi people? Is it because the African people don’t have oil and lots of money?