Funny that you say that as Gerard Prunier essentially says the same. I just got my Amazon notification that his book on the Congo Wars was shipped.
I do believe that there are circumstances where intervention are not only justified but obligatory. Rwanda's genocide was such a case. In contrast, the Humanitarian Crisis" as hyped in Somalia that led us to go in there was a mistake. Errors made in that crisis forestalled effective intervention in Rwanda. I do not believe that there is a cookie cutter model out there that can be used to select such instances. All are different and all require measured analysis. Just because 2 crises both happen in Africa do not make them the same.
CNN's Christine Amanpour's special on genocide ran last night and I watched some of it. Dallaire's comments about he could have done something with a brigade were again front and center in pre-show articles on CNN.com. Maybe he could have--if he actually had a brigade of Canadian troops or US troops or troops with a non-UN C2 system (UN C2 means no command and very little control). The UN has a division worth of troops in Congo right now and they have been there for years. What a waste.
Tom
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