Adam wrote:

In reply to:

Now let's say that saving the people of Iraq from a cruel dictator was the main reason for the war. There is a problem with that angle. And that problem is Africa. Whether by massacres and genocide, disease and epidemics (AIDS), cruel dictatorships or just plain malnutrition, the state of living for the average African is far more dire than the average Iraqi. Take Rwanda. The Congo. Sudan (hey, if we're going to right a wrong, how about we build a new pharmaceutical plant to replace the one we blew up, so the Sudanese people can receive treatment for various diseases, like TB, at a price they can actually afford, rather than dying by the thousands from treatable diseases). Anyway, my point is, the US has never been altruistic when it comes to using it's might. And though there are millions of Africans truly struggling for survival every day, who are far more deserving of a better way of life than those whose main struggle is for rights and not survival , they are denied that chance because they have little to offer the US in return.




We are not denying anyone in Africa their "chance" for survival. We are not responsible for one genocidal, corrupt regime after another which marks the governments of Africa. The US gives an enormous amount of food aid. We cannot stop the local despots from stealing a non trivial portion of that aid. We are not responsible for the AIDS epidemic in Africa. African governments reject Western pharmaceuticals for the treatment of AIDS because their party-line is that AIDS is not caused by a virus. Kenya is the exception and has an effective abstinence program. The conventional wisdom in Africa is that if a man contracts AIDS he should have sex with a young virgin. As you might expect, rape is simultaneously rampant and ineffective as a treatment. Muslim populations in Africa refuse polio and measles vaccines because their wise men tell them these vaccines are part of Jewish plot to cause infertility among Muslim men thereby depriving them of their "demographic weapon."

It's about time people take responsibility for their own lots. I don't know how a peaceful person can deal with warlords and their "technicals" children armed with AK47s and Toyota 4wd pick up trucks mounting 20 caliber machine guns, but that's the world of sub Saharan Africa. Why don't you expect Saudi Arabia, a neighbor to use some of their petro dollars to help people? All their "aid" is funding for Islamic centers which propagate the Wahabi Jihadist philosophy and terror. Israel gives more aid to Africa than Saudi Arabia which is swimming in enormous petro wealth.

You want the US to deal with the abomination of North Korea? Fine, convince the South Koreans that we should do that, or do you want us to act unilaterally in the Korean peninsula?

Forgive me for saying, but your comments appear to be well meaning but confused and based on misperceptions of global, regional and local realities.


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