i have to agree with you on your other points, but they only reason i do not hold the UK/French etc colonial masters of africa to task for no intervention is that they never claim to be the only superpower or the worlds police man which the US sometimes claims in order to do its will in other countries. this is a situation that cannot be only used when it is useful, but to be truely respected must be used for all people in all necessary situations. on your second point i didn't realise that this US administration had a foreign policy :-). even if americans feel this was as well they will be told to vote for the patriotic leader of their country and combining that with a few back hand agreements likein the last election corporation Bush will be reelected. my biggest fear at the moment is not so much that his foreign policy is useless but that his complete ignorance of the economy, much like his fathers was, could bring down the world economy and ruin us all (except those os us with shares in halliburton:-) )
Cheers
~M


Africa is a sad situation to be sure. It also seems to me that virtually all of Africa was once colonies of the British or French, with a little Portugese and German thrown in, and I would think that THOSE COUNTRIES held prior 'obligations' to take action ahead of the U.S. And it's not as if the U.S. has never intervened, on U.N. request, in Africa. It would be interesting to compare the Brit/French records to the U.S. record in Africa over the last 20 or so years.

In any case, the U.S. today is a very different place than it was even 5 years ago. My viewpoint is that it has become a danger to the planet and I hold far less regard for U.S. policy/actions today. And I also feel that, despite popularity polls, the majority of Americans feel along the same lines.

regards