The US is being unrealistic in attempting to promote democracy in African countries that have a tradition of tribalism, clientelism and weak central government. The French have a more resigned attitude about Africa, and their policies are more likely to succeed.
KINSHASA/KAMPALA/BAMAKO
AS I write, a territory the size of continental Europe, namely Zaire, has imploded amid suffering too vast to measure and confusion too tangled to unravel. As this implosion was beginning, America's First ...