Many African armies have shown that they serve the dictators whom they call Commander-in-Chief than the people they were supposed to be protecting. Thus, African armies have been known to slaughter their own peoples in cold blood to protect dictators. The actions of the Egyptian army has so far shown that they are for the people rather than for a corrupt dictator. I indicated in this blog that if the Egyptian uprising succeeds it would partly be based on how the army reacted to the whole situation. Now that the revolt has succeeded in ousting Mubarak, we have seen that the success has been due largely to the army siding with the people. There should be a clear lesson here for all African armies, especially those of Cameroon, Guinea Conakry, Equatorial Guinea, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, Zimbabwe, etc.: protect the people rather than the dictators. The role of the army is to protect the people of a country, not to murder them for he sake of corrupt dictators! Learn from the Egyptian army.
3 comments:
I totally agree. The main reason for the armies in any nation is to protect the people, basically their kins men and families. Especially when the leader that they are loyal to becomes abusive of their power.
Successful and stable countries all have one thing in common, internal controls of the armed forces from offices other than the presidents. Blind obedience to a dictator by the army is in no way a successful strategy to create stability in a country. Internal controls, a system of counterweights is needed in order for balanced military decisions to be made. The military wing of a government is not meant to strike fear in the hearts of the people or be used for a state of constant martial law.-aa
I just watched the film based off of Adam Hochshild's book King Leopold's Ghost and this post reminds me so much of Mobutu Sese Soku or just the Congo in general. For instance while gaining independence Patrice Lumumba had the best interests of the people in mind however, with the help of the u.s. and belgium the army, headed by Mobutu, rose up against him and brutally murdered him. since then the army supported Mobutu instead of looking out for the best interests of the Congolese people. They even murdered thousands upon thousands of people who did not agree with his rule. the army defended his dictatorial rule instead of their own people. like you said, the army is supposed to be for the protection of the people, not for killing them.
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