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Worldview Blogby A Concerned Citizenback to the Worldview Menu |
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Worldview Blogby A Concerned Citizenback to the Worldview Menu |
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13 Jan 08: Presidential Frontrunners and Human Rights 01 Jan 08: Presidential Campaign Blather 31 Dec 07: Pakistani Nukes 22 Dec 07: Our Constitution is Threatened 20 Dec 07: Uri Avnery: The Gaza Hell Hole 19 Dec 07: Bill Moyers: Buying the War 18 Dec 07: Liberals and Ron Paul 04 Dec 07: NIE Report Plays Down Iran Threat 01 Dec 07: Endless War and American Politics 28 Nov 07: Why Not To Bomb Iran 26 Nov 07: The Democrats and Iraq |
Horror in the Congo 14 January 2008 This is just a brief entry to note some of the horror being ignored due to the distraction of our disastrous Middle East policy. As reported last night on 60 Minutes, a savage civil war in the Congo has claimed more than 4 million lives. The brutality is mind-boggling, including the mass rape of women, accompanied by torture and humiliation. (For example, women are often raped in front of family members, and are then shot or stabbed in the groin.) This is not just a case of soldiers satisfying their urges but of terror and torture being used as a weapon.
Regarding the first question, we might be tempted to invade on humanitarian grounds. The problem, as I have discussed here before, is that 'humanitarian' invasion is often the pretext for one-sided and clumsy involvement that furthers the American imperial footprint. The use of military force must be under UN auspices. Indeed, the UN is already there in large numbers, but those numbers are ineffective in such a vast area, when the government is largely corrupt and in disarray. A real tragedy. As for our 'culpability', I believe that much of the current conflict has colonial and Cold War origins. Of course, such a brief and vague comment can hardly do justice to the matter. From a larger perspective, we are reminded how social chaos leads to man's descent into bestiality. Social chaos is the frequent result of outside meddling, whereby a natural equilibrium is disturbed. War is an abomination, not only because of the direct toll in death, but because it rips apart the thin veneer of civilization and decency. Those who would solve the world's problems through war must reflect on this. It would seem better to have a balance of power between nations (and within nations), allowing for a civilizing equilibrium to be established, than for one power to embark on a crusade for utopia.
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