Coming February 6, 2024 . . .
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
Coming February 6, 2024 . . . MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
By John Irish and Daniel Flynn in Paris and Dakar, Reuters, Feb. 23, 2014
When France sent troops to halt violence between Christians and Muslims in Central African Republic, commanders named the mission Sangaris after a local butterfly to reflect its short life. Three months later, it is clear they badly miscalculated.
Buoyed by a swift victory in last year's war against Islamists in Mali, France's military predicted six months would be enough to quell sectarian conflict in Central African Republic, which began in March when Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in the majority Christian country.
Some defense ministry officials said in private that a show of French force would be enough to restore order and no shots need be fired. With its military budget stretched by Mali, Paris gambled on sending a small force of just 1,600 men.
Now, with the country sliding into what the top U.N. human rights official termed 'ethnic-religious cleansing', as Muslims flee northward to escape vicious reprisals by Christian militia, France faces a long fight with scant support from Western allies to stop the nation of 4.5 million people splitting in two [....]
Comments
by artappraiser on Sun, 02/23/2014 - 7:20pm
It is the UN that will eventually turn it's attention to attacking, Religions Queen; who cant control her followers or subordinates.
The UN is already pissed and has requested files from the church on abuse, and these religious wars, might be the tipping point, where harsher controls, by governmental authorities is needed to try and reign in the trouble makers.
by Resistance on Sun, 02/23/2014 - 7:37pm
Um no that's not exactly what's up here. It is not hierarchical religion that is the problem, it could actually be part of the solution, it is quite probable that the leaders of major religious institutions in the CAR are already working with the U.N. and the French.
For example:
by artappraiser on Mon, 02/24/2014 - 4:13pm
Maybe the church can broker a deal, where the rebels will allow the the Muslims to leave peacefully, rather than the alternative. A win/ win for the Christian church?
I wouldn't trust a brokered deal though. "Darn it, the rebels didn't live up to their bargain, so sorry"
by Resistance on Mon, 02/24/2014 - 10:04pm
Srebrenica was a long time ago.
U.N. has a lot more experience now, and has been enabled to have proactive forces rather than just defensive if approved by the Sec. Council.
The role of institutional churches that are already on the side of solving the problem is to help set up havens for targeted civilians. While the proactive forces go after rebels who, in a situation like this (or Rwanda long ago) are more like criminals committing ethnic cleansing crimes than political rebels.
It's not perfect,but has been of some success lately. To involve arming of civilians for their defense, which I suspect you would recommend, is simply to encourage civil war based on ethnicity, with lots more death, and with an eventual two states from one, and lots more hatred between those states. In a place where the two groups lived peaceably together for a long time, makes no sense. It would be like feeding trolls on the internet to enable more arming. The rebels are the trolls who want to encourage war, and you mustn't oblige. (The principle here also happens to be in the NYT Locke article just cited on Jolly Roger's thread.) It is exceptionally helpful when the institutionalized churches send a message of tolerance by helping civilians of the "other" religion, like the Catholic church has done here.
by artappraiser on Mon, 02/24/2014 - 10:44pm
I wouldn't trust the Churches. Has the Russian Orthodox church spoken out against the assault on gays? History has shown the Pope and the leadership, collaborated with the Nazis, in rounding up the Jews; you think they didn't know what was happening?
by Resistance on Mon, 02/24/2014 - 11:11pm
by artappraiser on Sun, 03/09/2014 - 3:03am