Friday, April 9, 2010

Why Does Africa Have Many Wars?


Africa's Forever Wars: Why The Continent's Conflicts Never End. -- Foreign Policy

There is a very simple reason why some of Africa's bloodiest, most brutal wars never seem to end: They are not really wars. Not in the traditional sense, at least. The combatants don't have much of an ideology; they don't have clear goals. They couldn't care less about taking over capitals or major cities -- in fact, they prefer the deep bush, where it is far easier to commit crimes. Today's rebels seem especially uninterested in winning converts, content instead to steal other people's children, stick Kalashnikovs or axes in their hands, and make them do the killing. Look closely at some of the continent's most intractable conflicts, from the rebel-laden creeks of the Niger Delta to the inferno in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and this is what you will find.

Read more ....

My Comment: Jeffrey Gettleman has summed up in three pages what plagues Africa today ..... and why it will suffer tomorrow. Read it all .... this is a must read.

1 comment:

T. Greer said...

Texas in Africa wrote a pretty good critique of this one, I think.

http://texasinafrica.blogspot.com/2010/04/wars-arent-pointless.html