Don't Blame Me, I Wasn't There
Just caught the tail end of a speech by a retired Canadian General named Romeo Dallaire on CSPAN2. He is promoting his book called "Shake Hands With The Devil". He was the commander of the UN mission to observe and report during the genocide in the Rwanda.
He claims that the wealthy and more developed nations of the world are not doing enough to protect peoples of less developed nations and that those decisions are made on the basis of skin color as well as the traditional factors of politics, culture, religion and national interest.
Well excuse me for being confused, but when the US flexes it’s muscle and interferes in the affairs of other nations in it’s own interest, it is condemned for imperialism. Now we shall be condemned when we don’t use our blood and treasure to interfere in the affairs of other nations?
General, I’ve got three words for you. Go to hell! Where were you when Saddam Hussein was gassing the Kurds? And where were you when the US finally decided that someone needed to do something about his heinous behavior? Hypocrite!
You’ve suggested that we can lift these people and change the culture of destruction in the third world by helping them prosper. You may be a great General, but that statement proves you know nothing about the link between culture and economics. Prosperity does not beget order and rule of law. Order and rule of law beget prosperity.
I’m sorry that there is so much pain and suffering in Africa. But from what I can tell, it was there before the racist, homophobe, Christian, white men ever showed up. One must ask what caused the racist, homophobe, Christian, white men to develop the technologies and materials that gave them such an advantage and compare it with the influences that kept the poorer people of the world from developing those same technologies and materials.
Poverty is not the problem. It is a symptom. Poverty, thy mother is Tribalism. Tribalism is the problem and nepotism, corruption and cronyism, are just other names for tribalism. Gang violence is rampant in small pockets of US inner-cities. Real estate that would otherwise demand top dollar rents and royalties is nearly worthless because of gang violence. Gang behavior is tribalism. Africa is the same thing on an exponential scale. Africa could be feeding the world, but no one in their right mind is going to put a boatload of $300,000 wheat combines into a port in sub-Saharan Africa unless he has his own army to protect them. Because without an army, there’s no probability that they will remain under control of the owner.
Africa is an addict. It is under the influence of a seductive drug called liberalism. Africa loves being told that it’s problems are someone else’s fault. It is standing outside the door of the methadone clinic waiting for it’s next fix. And like any other addict, it will have to hit rock bottom before it will turn itself around. And many more will die. And none of those deaths are my fault. They are the fault of all the generations before them that continued "tribalism as usual." No matter what General Twisty-Pants has to say about it, this is where the seeds sown by the fathers are reaped by the children.
Oh yes, and that fresh genocide in Darfur? Why don't you Canadians go do something about it? Since you aren't busy helping oppressed people anywhere else.
He claims that the wealthy and more developed nations of the world are not doing enough to protect peoples of less developed nations and that those decisions are made on the basis of skin color as well as the traditional factors of politics, culture, religion and national interest.
Well excuse me for being confused, but when the US flexes it’s muscle and interferes in the affairs of other nations in it’s own interest, it is condemned for imperialism. Now we shall be condemned when we don’t use our blood and treasure to interfere in the affairs of other nations?
General, I’ve got three words for you. Go to hell! Where were you when Saddam Hussein was gassing the Kurds? And where were you when the US finally decided that someone needed to do something about his heinous behavior? Hypocrite!
You’ve suggested that we can lift these people and change the culture of destruction in the third world by helping them prosper. You may be a great General, but that statement proves you know nothing about the link between culture and economics. Prosperity does not beget order and rule of law. Order and rule of law beget prosperity.
I’m sorry that there is so much pain and suffering in Africa. But from what I can tell, it was there before the racist, homophobe, Christian, white men ever showed up. One must ask what caused the racist, homophobe, Christian, white men to develop the technologies and materials that gave them such an advantage and compare it with the influences that kept the poorer people of the world from developing those same technologies and materials.
Poverty is not the problem. It is a symptom. Poverty, thy mother is Tribalism. Tribalism is the problem and nepotism, corruption and cronyism, are just other names for tribalism. Gang violence is rampant in small pockets of US inner-cities. Real estate that would otherwise demand top dollar rents and royalties is nearly worthless because of gang violence. Gang behavior is tribalism. Africa is the same thing on an exponential scale. Africa could be feeding the world, but no one in their right mind is going to put a boatload of $300,000 wheat combines into a port in sub-Saharan Africa unless he has his own army to protect them. Because without an army, there’s no probability that they will remain under control of the owner.
Africa is an addict. It is under the influence of a seductive drug called liberalism. Africa loves being told that it’s problems are someone else’s fault. It is standing outside the door of the methadone clinic waiting for it’s next fix. And like any other addict, it will have to hit rock bottom before it will turn itself around. And many more will die. And none of those deaths are my fault. They are the fault of all the generations before them that continued "tribalism as usual." No matter what General Twisty-Pants has to say about it, this is where the seeds sown by the fathers are reaped by the children.
Oh yes, and that fresh genocide in Darfur? Why don't you Canadians go do something about it? Since you aren't busy helping oppressed people anywhere else.
posted by ironcross11 | 8:42 PM
2 Comments:
Not that I agree with Dallaire, but when the usa becomes a part of the UN and swears to not abide ongoing genocide and then ignores it when it suits them..well, it wasn't fiscally responsible...so maybe I understand why a capitalist country would respond in such a way. Clinton himself said that the biggest regret from his time in office was not doing more in nations like Rwanda. So attempt not to sensationalize..because your point becomes ineffective when you go off on your tangents.
While the Iraqi people were suffering deprivations under UN imposed sanctions because of Saddam's refusal to comply with inspections protocols, UN officials, Kofi Annan's son and Bill Clinton's Friend Marc Rich were getting rich along with French, Russian and Swiss financiers by mishandling the Oil for Food program. Don't hold up the UN as an example of purity and honor. It is a den of anti-American, anti-semitic, anti-western thieves.
And the country that has spent more blood and treasure to liberate oppressed people around the world is... Well, I'll give you a clue; it ain't Canada, France, Germany, Russia, China or Japan.
With it's long history of Empire cum Commonwealth, one could argue that it is Great Britain, but that must be tempered with the reality of conquest and Imperial occupation as the intent.
Ex-British Colonies almost universally have been more stable than Ex-French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch or Portugese colonies.
America's liberation has been a pattern of spank, train and leave. Spank them into submission, Train them to govern themselves peaceably and then leave, without even demanding payment of war debt.
If genocide somewhere bothers you, then pick up a gun and go do something about it. My job is to lead troops in the defense of this country and it's interests. It seems I keep hearing that to go butting into other countries is illegal and immoral.
That certainly can be demonstrated when we don't have a strategic interest.
As for the causes of chaos and poverty in Africa being a tangent; how sophomoric! The cause of any problem is never tangental to the problem. It is the problem.
Can you name a single place that has life threatening poverty that does not have tribalism as defined above? Not a chance. We're not talking about the American kind of poverty defined by only being able to afford one car and one color TV, and dying of obesity related disease while watching Oprah. We're talking about swollen belly starving and water-borne disease ravaged poverty.
Order and Rule of Law is the only way. You cannot impose prosperity on people who demand to cling to an 11th century culture.
The only reason there are fabulously rich Arabs is because there was oil beneath the land that no one else wanted.
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