Hopefully GySgt will be around to see this thread before it drops off. I know he has spent time in Somalia and prehaps other areas in Africa. There is a reason that the horn of Africa was, and still is a recruiting ground for islamic extremists. He has, in the past explained it succiently.
As someone sadi before, the continent of Africa has many natural resources that could support thriving economies. Prehaps the arid, desert regions would have a harder time of it, but there is no reason those countries couldn't work something beneficial out with neighboring countries. Hell, just about the entire ME is awash in the worlds most demanded resource. But where are the universities? Where is the higher education? Where is the education for women? The ME and Africa have been scientifically proven to be the birthplaces of man and civilization. If anything, these places should be the most advanced cultures in the world, with the west struggling to keep up. These regions of the planet should be light years ahead of everybody. They have been settled longer.
But they aren't. At some points, cultures in parts of Africa and in the ME were among the elite of the world. But they fell apart, and have never regained their past glory? What you have to ask yourself is why? And I think that therin lies the answer. What went wrong, that these places began a backwards crawl? If we examine that, and work from there, I think we would be better served to guide these countries back into modern times, rather than signing a check, and hope that they get it right this time.
If we weren't currently involved in Iraq and Afghanistan, I would gladly speak out that we should lead the way in Africa. Still even with our commitments in those countries, we have Marines in Chad, and the Horn of Africa is a common deployment for MEU(Marine Expeditionary units). We have seen a few Air Force strikes with AC-130 gunships on Al-Qaueda strongholds recently. But to undertake what needs to be undertaken in Africa, requires more than we can currently commit. Everybody here that knows me, knows I favor a strong, interventionalist approach to world crisis, or potential crisis. However, it generally is misconstrued in the way that most think I favor only a US led intervention. This could not be further from the truth. It is my desire to see other countries of western civilization step up to the plate and answer the call of humanitarian crisis, or to avert crisis.
Sadly, even when a crisis erupts in their own yard, they are unwilling to commit to action. Kosovo (in the 90s) was a prime example of this. Why should I reasonably expect those countries to commit anything substantial to countries that don't even reside on the same continent?
Make no bones about it, the real atrocities going on in Africa are serving no purpose for good. There is an actual humanitarian crisis going on there. Here we are in the US, worrying if a junkie is using clean needles. Or trying to stamp out gay marriage. These aren't problems we need be worrying about. These aren't crisis. What happens in Africa on a daily basis dwarfs any of our concerns about getting some "free" healthcare like Cuba, or having the Ten Commandments on public property.
What happens in Africa, is a direct reflection of how little humanity really cares about itself, IMO. Once that outlook changes, I might think we have a chance as a species.
