Great posts and welcome aboard !
It's a shame that so many of us realize what AFRICOM and USAID can't see staring them in the face. Adding a western military element to Nigeria will be a disaster and I agree with you, it is not our fight. I do however see ways that training and assistance can be beneficial. There are many programs that EUCOM provides that have no law enforcement or military twist. I spend a lot of time at schools, academies and hospitals and feel my contributions over the last 15 years have made a difference. Cultural differences are a hurdle for many here and forcing it down their throats won't work as it won't in Africa.
Thanks.

The most important things Africa needs are (a) renegotiation of the basis for nationhood - i.e. is a confederation of semi autonomous regions preferable to a winner takes all democracy and (b) an infusion of investment and job creation.

If (a) and (b) don't happen peacefully, they'll happen violently and Al Qaeda has a lot of raw materials to work with where I live. Africans are much better informed than they were ten years ago (there are already 300 million cell phones in Africa). So the dynamics have changed.

We'll appreciate Western diplomats who interact as much with the African people as they do with the power brokers. We'll also appreciate some bold new thinking on Africa - since almost everything that was tried in the past has failed, isn't it time to try something bold and new?