There are some pretty serious oversimplifications in here, which is annoying, because there is a lot to talk about.
Discussing the Congo as if the only bad actors there are Rwanda, and as though their actions are specifically at the behest or encouragement of the U.S. is...pretty much a lie. Rwanda's malfeasance is but one of the problems in that particular region of Congo and is intimately tied to the post-genocide retrenchment of Hutu genocidaires (and innocent Hutu's in refugee camps) in Eastern Congo, as well as their subsequent persecution of the Bamulenge (sp) who are ethnically related to the Tutsi's that currently control Rwanda. When the magazine was still running, we wrote a lot about this region and it annoys me to see people distorting things to fit an agenda. Especially when you could still make some of the more relevant points while presenting a full view of what is going on.
LOL @ the US being held responsible for tensions between Sudan and Southern Sudan. Is it that...or the 35 year genocidal murdering of successive Khartoum governments? Hmmm.
Kony 2012 is a joke and ridiculously uninformed "project". That said, Joseph Kony getting killed is way overdue and something no one should be sad about if it ever comes to pass. If anything, it will give Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni one less juistification for his abuse and neglect of Acholiland (the region in Uganda that Kony was attemtpting to "liberate" when he started his guerilla campaign decades ago). Museveni is a bum, but it is what it is.
Saying that the U.S. is the "major purveyor of violence in Africa" is a very broad statement that is probably incorrect (depending on how one measures such things) and more importantly, does nothing to really diffrentiate between some very different situations across an enormous continent. The U.S. is determined to fight Islamic militants that make common cause with Al Queda, something that is really only an issue in the Horn and Northern Africa. Whether or not you agree or disagree with this policy, it has pretty much nothing to do with violence in the Congo or West African civil conflicts or crime in South Africa.
I'm not saying that there are not legitimate issues in this, and certainly the lack of domestic discussion is noteworthy. This shit is very interesting but there is either a lack of intellectual rigor or a deliberate twisting of scenarios to suit a predetermined position.
That shit annoys me. Got a neighbor out here writing paragraphs "defending" US foreign policy, which is pretty much the last thing I want to do. But when people make bad arguments about things that are worth arguing about they open the door for right-wingers to come and point out the glaring inaccuracies and thus discredit everyone, including people like me.
