Revolutionary Moderation

I'm sure Liberia is no fun either.



More updates from the Congo, and things just aren't pretty. Salon makes you watch an ad before you can read about the President's trip to Africa and how he will ignore what's happening in the DRC, but do it anyway, because it raises a question: why is the State Department starting to talk up Liberia?



Let me break it down for you: yer average American citizen seems to think that their government has already found Iraq's currently non-existent weapons of mass destruction, which they are further convinced would have been used by Saddam Hussein to continue what he started on September 11, 2001, through his evil al Quada minions. Or something. What are the chances that same responsible member of the polity will understand the difference between Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo? What are the chances that our imaginary eligible voter will not write the entire continent off in his or her head, again, and move on to more pressing matters ("Is Saddam hiding in Syria? Osama who? How about that Laci Peterson thing, huh?")? I think the Administration may be intentionally playing into that habit, because it really isn't interested in installing friendly democracies everywhere, but it said it was. Gotta help the citizens to doublethink that little promise away.



Update: Let me add something that I should have mentioned. Liberia is not a bad place to send a few UN troops to keep people from shooting at each other - this is what peacekeeping is all about. It just isn't the only place, or the most urgent place.