Article

2019-04-20 Africa Subsaharan

25 Years After The Rwandan Genocide, The West Still Hasn't Learned The Right Lesson

BLUF:
[The Federalist] After the genocide, many blamed the Western powers such as the United States, United Kingdom, and France for doing too little to stop the genocide. Yet ethnic conflicts are always so complex. Many times it is hard for outsiders to tell the villains from the innocents. And the West, including the United States, has a very mixed record of interventions in the past. Not all lead to success.

It seems that since the Rwandan genocide, the West has been trying to correct its wrongs with money. Not surprisingly, 40 percent of the Rwandan government’s budget depends on foreign aid, with the United States and United Kingdom the two biggest donors. Despite the troubling human rights reports about Rwanda, the money keeps coming. Kagame can often be seen easily mingling with Western politicians and business people, even getting former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair to advise him.

Michela Wrong, a journalist for The Spectator, wrote a piece on Rwanada with an alarming title, “Rwanda is sliding into a new tragedy. And this time we’re funding it.”

I asked Coleman if she thought the West has learned its lesson. She shook her head. In her opinion, Kagame is able to manipulate the international message about Rwanda. “People in the west need to learn the truth about Rwanda,” she says. “The West needs to learn the truth of whom they are dealing with before lending their support. ” Otherwise, all the West is doing is spending taxpayers’ money to prop up one ruthless authoritarian after another.

I asked her if she thought the genocide could happen again. She said yes. The ethnic tension still exists—it’s only being suppressed by a strongman.

Posted by Besoeker 2019-04-20 06:24|| || Front Page|| [22 views ] Top

Since children inherited the tribal identity of their fathers....

Embedded takeaway.

Posted by Besoeker 2019-04-20 06:34|| 2019-04-20 06:34|| Front Page Top

#2 Ah, lesson - the world's sins are their problems. We aint buying the con anymore. Diversity you understand. Celebrate it!

Posted by P2kontheroad 2019-04-20 06:43|| 2019-04-20 06:43|| Front Page Top

#3 After the genocide, many blamed the Western powers such as the United States, United Kingdom, and France for doing too little to stop the genocide.

Talk about having it both ways - the burden apparently always falls on 'Western powers' whenever there's a major cock-up overseas, then the armchair QB's (like our own Herb McCoy, for instance) get to play the blame game with hindsight providing the 20/20 lens when a less than perfect result crops up.

Do I have that right?

Posted by Raj 2019-04-20 07:05|| 2019-04-20 07:05|| Front Page Top

#4 Talkabout having it both ways - the burden apparently always falls on 'Western powers'

Of course you have it right. We all know whom it is that can never be blamed or held to account for their own brutal actions.

Perhaps another 60,000 to 80,000 years of global interaction will bring about a degree of civilization.

Posted by Besoeker 2019-04-20 07:07|| 2019-04-20 07:07|| Front Page Top

#5 The Clintons and Bath House Barry never hesitate to use the savagery of others as an excuse for promoting their own politics. Rwanda, Kosovo, etc. They don't feel those people's pain at all, but they sure do find it useful. I'm going to add Boosh to that assessment as well...

Posted by M. Murcek 2019-04-20 08:00|| 2019-04-20 08:00|| Front Page Top

#6 We're $20 some trillion in debt and yet we still give billions to prop up corrupt dictatorships all over the Third World. There's gotta be some graft in all that.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2019-04-20 11:25|| 2019-04-20 11:25|| Front Page Top

#7 Raj,
To be fair to Herb, he's a skeptic about American meddling in other countries for "good" or "bad" reasons.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2019-04-20 13:38|| 2019-04-20 13:38|| Front Page Top

#8 Wow, people talk about me when I'm not here? I'm so touched.

And they invent things I didn't say and then put them in my mouth, and then criticize me for the things I didn't say? Wow, just like a leftist. Good job there.

Posted by Herb McCoy 2019-04-20 14:48|| 2019-04-20 14:48|| Front Page Top

#9 I'm so touched.

By your self doesn't count.

Posted by Skidmark 2019-04-20 16:01|| 2019-04-20 16:01|| Front Page Top

#10 It's not about you. You're a meme now

Posted by Frank G 2019-04-20 16:42|| 2019-04-20 16:42|| Front Page Top

#11 The lesson of Rwanda is they don't need guns to slaughter enemies wholesale so we shouldn't get involved.

Posted by rjschwarz 2019-04-20 22:08|| 2019-04-20 22:08|| Front Page Top

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