How does someone control Congo - a huge country the size of Poland, France, Italy, Denmark, Germany, Chezhoslavakia and Sweden COMBINED. 1 million square miles. It borders nine countries, five have sent hostile troops in. And it's all covered in jungle or other tough terrain. The UN does what it can - mostly dodging bullets.

Mobuto controlled the place with tens of thousands of troops and the remnants of the Belgian colonial infrastructure. However, after he was removed, the struggle for power has destroyed most of that infrastructure and as a result there are fewer sources of hard currency to buy arms. The tragic result are local warlords that refuse to recognize anyone from outside their local area but no one, including the government, has enough troops/police to occupy the entire country. Plus secure the tremendous border? How many troops/security/police would it take in total to really control that place? 500,000?

Mobuto stealing billions from his own people and stuffing it in Swiss bank accounts over the course of his entire rule did not help. And of course the Belgians... Well, let's just say don't get me started... And then Congo's neighbors getting into the fray and plundering it.

So what can anyone really do? The NGOs and the UN and the OECD send what aid they can. It mostly gets stolen by the warlords who sell it to (probably the Russians) for AK-47s and ammo.

In terms of guns blazing blue helmets, they better chill themselves out or they're going to become targets, if they are not already by some such warlord or faction or group of murderous bandits. The sad thing is that any heavy duty military action is going to eventually entail some sort of political component - especially when UN troops start dying because they are so poorly equipped. Probably result in a withdrawal eventually and the tragedy in Congo will drag on as it has for 7 years.

The struggle for supreme power in Congo continues - Over 2.5 million dead.

Maybe some sort of political confederacy can be established but that's not going to happen without someone being strong enough to control the enormous place.

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I think Darfur can be helped though. At least provide the relief for the tens of thousands of refugees trapped in Chad. I think that would be within our capabilities - mostly Air Force job. Kinda a Berlin airlift to those people. That would be the right thing to do.