I say that war is the only way to peace and lasting security in all of africa because of the fact that all of the power in Africa's 53 (minus South Africa to an extent) countries are concentrated in the hands of petty, cruel and inept rulers(if they so can be called rulers) who are incapilbe of running an ant farm let alone a vast country (to name a few Congo and Somalia). When I say war is the way to lasting peace I also mean that it has to be war on the scale of the conquests of the Roman empire and then some. It has to be a army not a gurrilla force, consisting of only black soldiers with the power to take out these regimes, the army has to consist of black soldiers so that they would be welcomed by the people and not seen as invaders. How do you ask can this be done well it would take some doing but I would start from a more Politically and economically disorganised African country with a large dissatisfied population that has some access to the ocean so on that permise the most logical first choice would be The Congo. The next step in the process to unify Africa and put an end to the African Dark Ages would be to gain political and military power and most importantly to win over the masses of disinchanted Congolese this will take some doing but its the only way because those dictators arn't going to give up their power so easily. END OF PART I

First, there are a few functioning democracies (Botswana, Namibia, Zambia comes to mind0, and a few new democracies which needs time and support, not more war (Liberia and Ivory Coast comes to mind). So saying ALL African nations minus SA is in such a state is just not true. Second, yes, sure, just what Africa needs, more war, as the last few years of wars did not improve the situation, your war will.

And the soldiers being black making a difference? Again no, look at how Ethopia's troops where'welcomes' in Somalia, and how AU troops are attacked in Sudan. So again not quite accurate.

And on African unity? Won't happen. Well, when I say won't, off course, in a few centuries it might, but not in the forseeable future. A vast Federation like Nigeria is struggling to keep unity, as is your favourite example, the DRC. Many Africans do not want unity, and richer countries like SA will not do it, since it will seriously devalue their (our) economy. An can you see Eritrea and Ethopia joining such a union? Nope. SA nad Zimbabwe? Again no.

And the other reason why a aingle African country will not happen, is the huge difference between the north and the south. Just as there is not one European culture, it is even more true for Africa. Algerian culture is just as alien to South Africans as Brazilian culture.

A singe Europe might happen, since the cultures are not THAT different (and look how many Europeans do not want Turkey to jpin becauseo f culture and religion), and htere are notthat many langues. South Africa alone have 11 official languages (12 actually, sign Language was made official earlier this year), so just guess how many langueges and cultural groups, and religions there are in Africa. From the Muslim north, down to the Protestant South.

African unity will not happen, and will not solve anything. I think the best proof for this is the fact that the biggest proponent of a unified Africa is Colonel Gadaffi, not the sanest man in the world.

AH

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“The subject no longer has to be mentioned by name. Someone is sick. Someone else is feeling better now. A friend has just gone back into the hospital. Another has died. The unspoken name, of course, is AIDS.”
“From the point of view of the pharmaceutical industry, the AIDS problem has already been solved. After all, we already have a drug which can be sold at the incredible price of $8, 000 an annual dose, and which has the added virtue of not diminishing the market by actually curing anyone.”

This is, of course, from the US Declaration of Independence but as it points out it is the right and the duty of the people of a nation to overthrow tyranny when it becomes unbearable. No other people or nation have the right or the duty to do this. The right and duty reside solely with the residents of a nation.

What the people in the African nations choose to do is their business and not ours. If they choose to live under tyranny and injustice that is their right and no one has the right or duty to interfere. Only they have the right and duty to overthrow any government when it become intolerable to their existance.

These principles are what America was founded upon and they are ideals based in wisdom. We have seen what a fiasco it is when the US takes it upon itself to intervene in the sovereign affairs of other nations. Iraq and Afghanistan quickly come to mind. Both are a "cluster-fuck" (to quote Clint Eastwood from Heartbreak Ridge) of epic proportions.

AfricanHope, First of all you can not compair the Ethiopian Somalian war or even the Ethiopian Eritriean war with what I am recommendingbecause they have years of bad history with each other. Second I believe we can achive unity by providing lots of economic oportunities, opportunities not offered by the other governments and political and in most cases dictictoral groups (my example of this working is THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA (of course I want to achive it with less communism).Thirdly the reason countries like Nigeria and The DRC have fallen into disrepair and cannot create unity between the groups is because of lack of good government leadership the political leadership belongs to one group so they only focus on the interests of that group and to hell with the rest as seen in DRC between the Noth and South. It is exactly because of the alienation of a sizablbe amount of the population that their is resentment and that resentment turns to hate and sparks many of the conflicts between the RICH AND THE POOR. See the pattern,to create unity you have to foster feelings of equality not have a prefrence to this group or that. I do believe that war can solve the problems Africa faces but not just an unthinking uncalculating blunt use of power no that won't solve any problems. When you wan to take over said country you have to do it with the support of the local populations and to get that you have to help them by fixing farms and making jobs basicly the good will stuff that will earn you thier full support. But at the same time you have to keep the more powerful party from taking you out before you have a chance to get at them first through more peaceful means and that requires you to keep everything as close to the political and economic issues and away from military violence for a while. ( Let me clear up any more questions you or anybody else might have)

First of all these African countries arn't real countries in the sence that America or Germany or France or Britain are real countries they are frivilous boarders drawn up by former colanizers who gave no heed to what the local populations thought about it. Second I was born in Africa but I lived most of my life in the U.S. I feel like I have a duty as an African and an American to do something anything that I can do ( im not advicating geting western countries involved that would be disastorous if they even care enough to do it which they don't the government I mean not the public in general). Im just fed up with all these inept rulers and know that Africa is more cabable then the rest of the world gives them credit for. Oh and lastly Their is no consparison between Africa and the middle east and President bush wanted to ram democracy down the throats of unwilling populations while Africa has a long history of democracy many local tribes have systems very much compatable or similar and in some cases better then our burocracey.

but Mr. Mouktar, you talk about African unity, then we have to bring up the Ethopian-Eritrean war, this is a Eritrea broke away from ethopia, did not want to be one. So how can we not bring it up. It shows that Africa is not yet ready to be one state. The same with DRC and Nigeria. Your reason why it does not work properly, because one group only looks after itself, might be true, but it does not change the fact that huge inter-tribal federations have never worked in Africa, Nigeria being the longest lasting one, again showingthat Africa is not yet ready for such a thing.

Africa's people is tired of war, which is why many African antions are abndoning war, and trying peacefull, semi-democratic and democratic means. Mothers are tired of losing their sons, men are tired of losing their limbs, Africa is tired of seeing dead children. #

And what do you propose? A war against the whole of Africa? Start in the North and work your way down South? Who should fight this war? You say black soldiers. Black African Soldiers? Or do you mean a force from out side Africa? ?Your thoughts, unfortunatly, are not very clear, and again, Africa should solve its own problms, with support form the outside, and Africa do not want unity right now. it was descussed at the lastest AU leader summit, and vastly rejected, with only 3 countries, as far as I know, supporting it.

AH

__________________
“The subject no longer has to be mentioned by name. Someone is sick. Someone else is feeling better now. A friend has just gone back into the hospital. Another has died. The unspoken name, of course, is AIDS.”
“From the point of view of the pharmaceutical industry, the AIDS problem has already been solved. After all, we already have a drug which can be sold at the incredible price of $8, 000 an annual dose, and which has the added virtue of not diminishing the market by actually curing anyone.”

What a piece of crap idea!! No no I really mean that. Africa had much less war, death, and famine before the outside influences decided to draw some lines on a map. The tribal way of life suited them just fine. As a rule most African tribes had their area and were happy and secure within them. Then here comes the Europeans, with their imperialistic and racist attitudes, to cause trouble between the tribes and unite others to crush and enslave the weaker tribes.

A united africa is not what is in the best interest of the african people. As so many others have already pointed out to you the cultural differences alone would cause too many problems. The US is already showing signs of decline due to the cultural and idealogical differences between different regions and states. I don't think any nation should be that large, it just lends to corrupt leaders starting unprovoked wars because they think their nation is the largest and strongest.

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"WAR ISN'T HELL. WAR IS WAR AND HELL IS HELL. AND OF THE TWO WAR IS ALOT WORSE BECAUSE THERE ARE NO INNOCENT BYSTANDERS IN HELL!!!!!!"
~Cpt. Hawkeye Pierce~

"POLITICIANS ARE LIKE DIAPERS; THEY SHOULD BE CHANGED REGULARLY FOR THE SAME REASON!"
~ Robin Williams~

Tribal politics isn't in Africas or any other country's best interest especially when were in the middle of globalization. I believe that Africans can learn to work together(the emense diversity of culture is something that must be imbraced and used to enrich the people as a whole not seen as an insermontible barrier ) all they are lacking are leaders with vision and will to accomplish this and to convice their people that they can accomplish it and thats partly because those leaders are dictators and keep people down by military force thats why I propose using force aganst those leaders. But I am not only promoting war, I think we should, we being Africans, should use both politcal, economic and military means which ever is most prudent to the situation at persent. How can you say that unity isn't in African's best interest how can anything else be more important, my personal opinon is that the future of Africa depends on whether or not they can learn to work together and we are starting to see the begining of this unity with groups like The AU (to bad they are mostly run by gangsters and war lords) just imagine if they were actually lead by leaders. Heading towards unity won't be easy but anything and everthing worth doing never is. ( happy to clarify)

Could you name these gangesters and warlords running the AU?

AH

__________________
“The subject no longer has to be mentioned by name. Someone is sick. Someone else is feeling better now. A friend has just gone back into the hospital. Another has died. The unspoken name, of course, is AIDS.”
“From the point of view of the pharmaceutical industry, the AIDS problem has already been solved. After all, we already have a drug which can be sold at the incredible price of $8, 000 an annual dose, and which has the added virtue of not diminishing the market by actually curing anyone.”

FIRST OF ALL THIS only strengthens my argument because the reason Eritrea wanted to break away from Ethiopia in the first place was because of the ineptness of the leadership and the prefrence of the the Ethiopian government to the Amhara Ethnic group while going out of thier way to make
Oromos amoung others (the ethnic group that I belong to) lives a living hell.
Also in the DNC the southern congolese are given more education and opportunities while the north is full of illiterate farmers why? is it because they can't learn no its because they arn't the perfered group. I'll admit though I don't know much of what's going on in nigeria but its most likely the same basic problem just like with many of the ethic problems plaging much of sub-saharra Africa. ( glad to clear things up)