My hope in resisting propaganda is a free press, most journalists are liberal, almost a prerequisite. They are all looking for the next Watergate. On a daily basis I check the BBC, ITV, Sky and France 24. That way I can circumvent editorial bias as far as possible.
The West have intervened in several wars with a bad result that's true. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as they say, Kosovo, was a possible exception.
Let's consider the alternative strategy followed by Russia. They follow Real Politik, It doesn't matter to them whether the guy in charge is good or bad, just as long as he can keep order, Assad is a prime example. There is a kind of brutal logic in this. You start from the assumption that lots of people are going to die one way or the other in a more or less random way. So support the guy with the best chance of winning. There were so many hostile factions against him, that were never going to agree among themselves afterwards, so better to support the tyrant.
Whether a liberal West could live with a policy like that is an open question, it smacks of non-interventionist fortress America.
The problems in Africa have many causes, endemic corruption in their culture probably being the largest cause of unrest. When I was in the Congo in the mid 70's, the government always placed government officials in distant areas where their relatives and own tribal members could not access them to demand special treatment. This kind of family/tribal obligation is difficult to comprehend in western societies, because we have not been tribal since the time of the Celts, Saxons, Jutes Danes etc.
Over population is a big problem in South Africa where young unemployed men turn to crime, post Mandela.
Nigeria has oil but does not share the profits with the area that it comes from, they just get the pollution. Nigerian armed forces are not up to the job of eliminating Boko Harum by themselves; they are very vulnerable to Islamic terrorism. Mali has the same problem minus the oil, so does Somalia. You could liken Islamic terrorism to a virus and western special forces to T Cells, I guess.
People like Stan who travel a lot, are especially vulnerable to these groups, if he wants to keep his head on his shoulders he should avoid these areas like the plague, Americans are a prime target to these guys.
I was in the Congo during the worlds's first Ebola outbreak there, Not much you can do about their love of bush-meat eating virus carrying bats should be a no-no to every African but there are always some who ignore the rules. This is how nature sorts out the population problem in a way very unforgiving of mistakes.
A sign of hope is the recent peace agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Libya has a UN backed government and a rival strong man, I doubt the UN will put boots on the ground to save the government, so the next chapter will be a new Gaddafi type leader in due course. In western societies that have been democratic for 200 years, it is difficult to understand that this model does not translate well to tribal societies, liberals are mystified, but the Russians seem to get it better than we do, and how we despise them for it.
The Who got the message way back, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss", Let's hope, we don't get fooled again!
My personal feeling is that climate change is happening much quicker than anticipated and will overtake events on a scale hitherto unimaginable, whole areas of the world will become uninhabitable because of the heat, there will famine and mass migration as a result. I may live to see some of this happen, but I really feel for my kids and especially my grandchildren, they will have to live through the population maximum, so God help them.
DaveP
