New at Reason

David Weigel | April 13, 2006

Christopher Preble ponders whether the US can police Afghanistan, Iraq, and everywhere else at the same time.

Comments

|4.13.06 @ 5:37PM|#

Is it wrong that my first reaction on reading "Let the African Union do it" was to crack up in helpless laughter?

|4.13.06 @ 5:55PM|#

Why don't we just bomb the hell out of the Sudan? That's relatively cheap and easy.

If that's too icky, just kill a bunch of the militias. We don't have to capture and hold territory. Just kill the oppressors. Let the African Union do the peacekeeping.

If the janjaweed (or whatever) is busy dodging air strikes, how enthusiastic are they really going to be about killing blacks?

|4.13.06 @ 6:34PM|#

Is it wrong that my first reaction on reading "Let the African Union do it" was to crack up in helpless laughter?

Terribly wrong, and now you're going to Heck.

and it is frustrating to spend so much money and yet to feel powerless in the face of great human suffering.

Solution: spend less money.

|4.13.06 @ 8:25PM|#

I just skimmed this, but is Christopher Preble a hopeless nerd?
(yes)
So long as US policy will remain jingoistic, we should confine ourselves to Africa for about 25 years to hone our intervening and nation-building skills.
Get the US out of Iraq, Afghanistan, and everywhere else (Iran), and get all our troops into Africa pronto.

I know we should be worried about the tsetse fly in Africa, but did we let the anopheles mosquito stop us from building the Panama Canal? Hell no!
Did we worry about the bends when we were building the Brooklyn Bridge? Hell no!

To Africa with Uncle Sam, for some remedial lessons! Not to mention some pain alleviation??

uncle sam|4.13.06 @ 8:41PM|#

I don't want to go to Africa at this time.

|4.13.06 @ 9:30PM|#

uncle sam,
Don't be a goldbricker.
Get your pasty ass down there, and like it!

You want lower prices for gasoline don't you?
(Protecting oil is killing us at the pumps.)

|4.13.06 @ 9:39PM|#

I just want to see the US Military do what it does best, reduce the entire complicated mess to "good guys" and "bad guys". Air strikes, torture, and the building of a school to follow.

|4.14.06 @ 12:15AM|#

What Dogzilla said. I can't remember reading a better two-sentence comment. Both right on and tragically funny.

|4.14.06 @ 12:25AM|#

Like Iraq before, the tragic situation in Darfur poses no threat to our security and liberty. So the government certainly shouldn't force us to intervene.

|4.14.06 @ 3:15AM|#

Also, US troops could easily end up in the middle of yet another civil war in the neighbouring country of Chad.

|4.14.06 @ 9:58AM|#

America must protect its vital and long-standing interests in the local governing practices of rural Sudan!

|4.14.06 @ 10:16AM|#

U.S. military personnel could soon be going to Darfur as part of a wider NATO mission

NATO in Darfur? I thought NATO was overstepping when it bombed Yugoslavia and Kosovo under Clinton's command. How did it become the North (Atlantic, Asian, African, Afghani, Albanian, Arabian) Treaty Organization?

|4.14.06 @ 10:16AM|#

Oil! Oil! Oil! There's no OIL in Darfur, so of course BU$Hitler, the NEOCONS, Rethuglicans, and their lapdog pundits at CATO will want to stay away. (plus - they're Darkies in Darfur! - oh no can't help them)