Hinges of Hades

The Ivory Coast could well be slipping into a period of Rwanda-style internecine strife or Congo-like prolonged bloodshed. The United Nations is far from calming the situation but in fact unwittingly fanning the flames of an easily avoidable conflict. On the same African continent in Zimbabwe, election after election is stolen and the UN does nothing. In Venezuela, rigged outcomes prevail in Chavez-orchestrated faux plebiscites. Even contemporaneous with the voting in Ivory Coast, the dictator of Belarus staged a phony vote to keep himself in power. What is so exceptional about Laurent Gbagbo that the United Nations and the United States demand that he be deposed from his tinhorn perch? Why are the multilateralist busybodies trying to impose Alassane Ouattara who is a Muslim whose campaign made some populist mutterings and seemed inclined to some "social justice redistribution" over the existing dictator who happens to be Catholic and whose allies control most of the guns? If Gbagbo was left unmolested, protests would likely settle down within days and with little loss of life but by pushing the matter, the United Nations seems to be out to inadvertently start a bloody civil war, with fighting taking shape on ethnic, tribal, and religious lines (along of course, with freelance rogues jumping in to contest over the wealth of natural resources). The situation eerily evokes the Balkans where hasty decisions by Germany and the Vatican to recognize the independence of Croatia sparked spiraling violence that led to Europe's worst combat since cessation of hostilities at the end of World War II. The United Nations should have left well enough alone with Gbagbo in charge of the Ivory Coast- their interference invites another slaughter in Africa.