Congo situation.

[FallenAngel]

I agree....a MEU Bn. would do much to help out those poor guys. No offense to those troops, but Uruguay aren't exactly the most battle-hardened and technologically up to date. MEU marines have been used more than once to help secure US embassies in hostile regions so this should be right up their alley.

[Beowulf]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/05/08/congo.uganda/index.html

I found this..i gotta go

[Beowulf]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1069166.stm

basic info and stuff...

[yellowking]

It would seem wise to send the MEU(SOC) relatively nearby in to start a rescue operation, with SOF arriving ASAP. But you know that Security Council, I'll be surprised if they allow the U.S., Britain, or anyone else to perform a rescue, even if under a UN charter.
The U.S. let a million Rwandans die, what makes you think we care about 425 Uraguyans? The U.S. administration did everything they could to stay out of it. The slaughter in the Congo has killed three million people in the last five years-- I don't know about you, but I haven't heard loud cries of complaint that the U.N. has shackled our attempts to help. Not really criticizing the U.S., just pointing out that this isn't the U.N.'s fault. Obviously, if the U.S. feels it needs to do something, it's not going to let the U.N. stop it, so it's hard to blame the U.N. now for us doing nothing.

[hood]

The US feels that Rwanda doesn't threaten our national security so you're not going to have action against the UN on this one. Here's a note on the French side...Notice at the end how they facilitated the escape of the people who commanded the genocide forces? Gee.. amazing. They're doing the same thing by giving passports to fleeing Saddam regime people. Notice a trend? It sounds like they sent in their people to get 'their' people out.



The Security Council took this vote and others concerning Rwanda even as the representative of the genocidal regime sat amongst them as a non-permanent member. After human rights, media, and diplomatic reports of the carnage mounted, the UN met and debated and finally arrived at a compromise response on May 16. UNAMIR II, as it was to be known, would be a more robust force of 5,500 troops. Again, however, the world failed to deliver, as the full complement of troops and materiel would not arrive in Rwanda until months after the genocide ended. Faced with the UN’s delay, but also concerned about its image as a former patron and arms supplier of the Habyarimana regime, France announced on June 15 that it would intervene to stop the killing. In a June 22 vote, the UN Security Council gave its blessing to this intervention; that same day, French troops entered Rwanda from Zaire. While intending a wider intervention, confronted with the RPF’s rapid advance across Rwanda, the French set up a “humanitarian zone” in the southwest corner of Rwanda. Their intervention succeeded in saving tens of thousands of Tutsi lives; it also facilitated the safe exit of many of the genocide’s plotters, who were allies of the French.

[Light Fighter]

I have said it before and I'l say it again, the US is under a policy of "we'r damned if we do, damned if we dont." The rest of the world seems to set double standards for the US. The world expects the US to play by a set of ever changing rules, but you (US) cant play the game without set and clear rules.

[cut]

UNITED NATIONS, May 12 (*******) - France was considering a U.N. call on Monday for a rapid reaction force to help quell ethnic fighting in eastern Congo that has led to civilian massacres and homelessness, diplomats reported.

Calls are growing from African leaders for the United Nations to intervene more forcefully in Ituri province, which broke into ethnic fighting between the Hemas and Lendus after Uganda pulled out of the region last week.

"Clearly we can't sit on our hands," Richard Williamson, a a senior U.S. representative told reporters after council consultations.

U.N. reports have accused sections of the Uganda military of deliberately fostering the rivalry so they could loot the area's mineral resources with the aid of local militia.

Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N. undersecretary-general told the Security Council on Monday that he received "highly disturbing reports" that the Ugandan army continued to supply and manipulate the Hema militia.

"While we have reports of up to 7,000 refugees fleeing towards Uganda, it is clear that the (army) encouraged the movement of persons out of Ituri," Guehenno said according to his speaking notes to the council last week.

The U.Ni. peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has some 4,300 military personnel, most of them to supervise cease-fires in the vast central African nation. "The peacekeeping troops are neither trained nor equipped to deal with the kind of violence that erupts from time to time," U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

Guehenno said he had sent some 700 troops, mainly from Uruguay, to the area but this number was insufficient. A more sizable force was needed in Ituri and its main city of Bunia.

He asked for a "coalition of the willing" and France on Monday expressed interest, the envoys said. French diplomats told ******* that no decision had been made.

Nevertheless, France is taking the lead in drafting a Security Council statement that would approve one U.N. member country going to the Congo to help quell the fighting.

Congo's war began in 1998 when Uganda and Rwanda invaded to back rebels fighting to topple the central government. Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia then sent troops to aid the government in Kinshasa.

[hood]

Why is it that we're not hearing of African nations banding together and sending troops to stop the genocide? Are European and Western countries the only ones capable of doing the right thing all of a sudden?

[FallenAngel]

Amen Hood.

THe world expects the US to play policeman whenever the world doesn't want to get it's hands dirty. But when we take action on something WE feel needs to be done, we're the "bad guys" because we weren't waiting on the rest of the world hand and foot.

Let's send in Egyptians, South Africans, Lybians, etc. and quell this thing ;)

[JiJoMacLE45]

Maybe it's me, but is not the job of the United Nations to come up with possible solutions for crisis situations like this one. Time after time they have proven they are either incapable or incompetent when it comes to quelling these conflicts. Granted there are complicated circumstances that have led to these outbreaks of violence, but that's why the UN was created to handle these difficult situations. The UN was created to keep the peace, and if need be use force to bring peace. Now the UN stood up against the war on Iraq, okay, but that was like trying to stop a gorilla from taking a **** in your living room. The gorilla is going to **** where it wants to. But how many other times since the end of the Cold War has the UN turned a seemingly blind eye to the violence enveloping it.

And Yellowking, I agree that the US never felt a need to get involved in the Rwandan conflict, but I also did not hear the UN making a stink and trying to rally the troops and go in and begin solving problems.

[fng]

Two words: Executive Outcomes

[Ichhabe]

Yeah! Wonder what they are up to?!?

[Royal]

Why is it that we're not hearing of African nations banding together and sending troops to stop the genocide? Are European and Western countries the only ones capable of doing the right thing all of a sudden?

Two reasons (for black Africa, as opposed to Arab north Africa). One - the majority - are as corrupt as you like and care only for lining their own pockets with aid/oil/mineral kickbacks and couoldn't give a flying f**k about their black brothers - or they're already there causing trouble - Zimbabwe et al.

Two - the marginally less corrupt, or in rare cases noncorrupt - either have the best parts of their armies commited with outfits like EcoMog or don't have a standing army capable of Expeditionary Warfare/PSO's.

[RealUltimatePower]

Seems to me the UN needs to undergo a major overhaul. A end to the bureaucratic bull and a beginning to more decisive action. Granted that the primary goal should be to negotiate peacefully an end to conflicts. However, when the rout of the conflicts are racial/tribal problems the UN should recognize that they cannot deal reasonably with the involved factions and send in troops to bring and end to the fighting. And I don't mean just a few hundred or thousand peacekeepers. I mean a fast but effectivly strong force. Obviously the UN has to borrow forces from nations so I'd say borrow some US Marines or Royal Marines. Although my solution is a very simple one to many complex problems I like it better than my friend's which is serilization by thermonuclear device(s).

But seriously I don't think the burden of policing the world should be only the US and UK and other Western nations. The UN needs to become more of a real and just authority to do the job it was created for. It seems kinda stupid saying it but maybe the creation of a global military force isn't a bad idea. The only problem is getting there.

[EliteWolf]

from what i can see, the US foreign policies have changed, the last time we went into a country full of ethnic instability and civil chaos would have been ummm......the bosnia-kosovo peacekeeping mission, and the mogadishu humanitarian relief mission, both of which were never fully successful and to this day, the civil unrest continues. i honestly dont think the bush administration wants to have another oct 3 situation on their shoulders, i mean the clinton administration which was already knee deep in other ****, really had it rough after oct 3, 93 because clinton denied the use of high profile support for troops during the raid.

im sure bush does not want to be held responsible if something should go wrong in a rescue effort.

Wolfe117, i can be just like your friends sometimes.....NUKE EM ALL TO HELL! lol :roll:

[ScopeScene]

Where has E.O. been poppin it's head up lately? Columbia? How much contact do operators still have with the pentagon?