Europe Twiddles its Thumbs While America Acts

Faintly moaning, the Europe 27 yesterday still didn’t know if they should intervene in the Congo and help the army against the rebel surge in the East of the battered country. Ethnic groups have been wiped out in the past, communities displaced, a collective genocide and more than 30,000 women violated in the past four years alone.

Yet, they will still talk about it in Brussels today. The largest country in Africa, a landmass five times bigger than that France, has been burning for over a decade and there still aren’t any solutions. Bernard Kouchner advocates shipping 1500 soldiers. Germany is against it, Belgium, the former colonizer of the Congo, doesn’t like to live in the past (as usual).

Solana himself, has been keeping his eye on the UN soldiers, who have confessed their powerlessness to protect civilians.

France Thrashes About as She Can

An apostle of international interference, Bernard Kouchner has been banging his head against the wall. France doesn’t want to have to assume the stigma of another failure (96) like in Rwanda, where its “Operation Turquoise” allowed the Tutsis to flee after massacring the Hutus, they said.

At the same time yesterday, while Europe drag its feet on how to stop the slaughter of thousands of Congolese citizens, George Bush names David Petraeus, a four-star general, Supreme Chief of the American forces in the Middle East, the Gulf and Central Asia. He’s anticipating on Obama’s plans, being whipped by McCain’s.: to have a larger commitment in Afghanistan as 2008 has been the bloodiest year due to terrorism. Americans are waiting for him to import the “model of stability” (they say) established in Iraq since his naming in 2007. David Petraeus has been nicknamed the “Intellectual Warrior.” He favors diplomacy and the appropriation of insurgents. That strategy has worked relatively well in Iraq; they have given him the credit, but they forget that Iraq is the cradle of Mesopotamia, meaning essential civilization. What diplomacy can one really engage in with the barbaric Taliban? And moreover, Petraeus will have Iran and Pakistan on his plate and the reinforcements of the Central Asia contingent real soon that will become necessary in the Gulf.

Next Tuesday, America will have a new president. But the army ultimately belongs to the generals. Maybe they have to learn how to hear them. Powell would suggest retreating from Iraq before being chased away by that “fundamentalist” Rice. And if Truman had listened to that rebellious General McArthur about the 38th parallel, they may have never been Vietnam.