Eye on Africa

***Photo courtesy of Nigel Pearson - Pakistani Troops, Tubimbi, South Kivu

In his recent piece, Blue Crush, Peter Beinart, Editor-at-Large at The New Republic, reflects on the Congo model for nation-building. He writes:

"In the world today, there are three models for how to save a country on the brink. The first is Iraq, where the United States–largely alone–is trying to prevent a dictatorship from sliding into chaos. The second is Afghanistan, where the United States is doing much the same thing with nato support. 

The third is almost invisible to Americans. It is the Congo, where the largest U.N. peacekeeping operation in the world is struggling to rescue one of the most wretched countries on earth. And it is doing so with virtually no high-level involvement by the United States.

The Congo makes Iraq and Afghanistan look prosperous. Seventy-five percent of the population is malnourished; 20 percent of children die before age five. In the 1950s, life expectancy was 55; today, it is 51.