Feb 01 2010

Looking the other way?

Category: Uncategorizedharmonicminer @ 9:11 am

Orphaned, Raped and Ignored (much more at the link, and a difficult read)

Sometimes I wish eastern Congo could suffer an earthquake or a tsunami, so that it might finally get the attention it needs. The barbaric civil war being waged here is the most lethal conflict since World War II and has claimed at least 30 times as many lives as the Haiti earthquake.

Yet no humanitarian crisis generates so little attention per million corpses, or such a pathetic international response.

That’s why I’m here in the lovely, lush and threatening hills west of Lake Kivu, where militias rape, mutilate and kill civilians with a savagery that is almost incomprehensible. I’m talking to a 9-year-old girl, Chance Tombola, an orphan whose eyes are luminous with fear.

There are those who pretend great concern for the third world. Bluntly, the Congo is a problem that will only be solved by an imposed peace from the outside. Yes, it won’t be a perfect solution. But no amount of mere “aid” will fix it, and there really isn’t anyone to “negotiate” with.

If we cared for these people, we would be mounting an international military mission to rescue them. Yes, there would be problems from the misbehavior of the soldiers we sent in, and there would be continued abuses and horrors… but they could hardly be worse than the reality on the ground now.  I have always wondered why the African-American community does not demand that we do more about this.

Question:  How many pacifists does it take to rescue a threatened child?

Answer:  There aren’t enough in the world to do the job.

h/t:  Hugh Hewitt