an interesting article from the Economist about the current situation in the Congo. some interesting points are made about what the UN forces can do, and it does acknowledge America's preference for (Rwandan) President Paul Kagame's administration (politically it is in US interest to remain cool with Rwanda after our disastrous failure to assist during the genocides of 1994) .
however, the issues in the Congo right now go much much deeper from the impact of the colonial oppression of Belgium, which opened the country to international trade, to the economic and political oppression imposed by the US and the West which has been strangling and exploiting the DCR for years. there are US-based publicly traded companies dealing in raw materials for the defense department. the Chinese for example are not mentioned in this article at all, yet they have considerable mining and manufacturing holdings in the Congo in exchange for improving the the country's infrastructure. where is China in all this?
i fear Nkunda is simply preening himself as a successor to Mobutu, another puppet dressed up in a military suit dangling with braids and buttons. (and yes Mobutu was a 'rapacious dictator', placed neatly in power by the Eisenhower administration after the assassination of Lumumba).
Don't Let it Happen Again
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