Why Tony Blair is Right about Paul Kagame (and clueless on everything else)

For all references to Tony Blair's remarks, unless otherwise noted, please see THIS STORY (Tony Blair defends Rwanda's role in DR Congo) from the BBC.

For other references to Paul Kagame's war crimes directly look up the United Nations Group of Experts Report linking the M23 Militia in DR Congo to Rwandan Government Officials and the DRC Mapping Report.  These are linked in several previous blog posts and are readily available online.

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Tony Blair recently told the BBC that Western Nations should not withhold aid to Rwanda because of alleged acts of supporting militia groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo because "Kigali [the capital of Rwanda] should not be singled out for blame" and that the conflict in the Congo is complex.

Blair, in the above cited article, then goes on to tout Rwanda's President Paul Kagame as having remade the African nation through good use of the foreign aid.  Blair praised Kagame for dropping the malaria rate by approximately 60%, massive poverty reduction, virtual elimination of measles, and now,  President Kagame, to whom Blair is a personal advisor, is moving on to tackling rubella.

It seems almost inconceivable to withdraw aid from such a benevolent nation. So, maybe Tony Blair is right!  Maybe Western Nations should continue to aid his regime.  Of course, in Blair's and Kagame's world, the individual person, or for that matter, entire communities are not important.  Neighboring nations are not important.  Only the ends are important - The means of getting to those means are not important.

The fact that Kagame has sparked 2 Congo Wars which have "officially" killed 4-6 Million (and most likely more) is irrelevant to Blair or Kagame.  If Kagame says he was invading the DRC (once named Zaire) out of self-defense, then we might as well take him at his word. Remember - the suffering of the common people does not matter - the only thing that matters is the end result. Rwanda appears successful, so therefore it is.

The fact that Blair, while Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was right at the side of President George W. Bush of the United States to make a preemptive war against Iraq over non-existent "weapons of mass destruction" should give us a sign. At the end of his Presidency, President Bush refused to say that the Iraq war was a mistake. In fact he said that the people of Iraq were better off after being "liberated."  In a recent interview played on NPR, former Prime Minister Blair said basically the same thing.  The fact that countless innocent Iraqi civilians suffered for no stated reason is immaterial in this line of thinking.  The end result is all that matters.  In this case, Iraq was liberated from Saddam Hussein. Change the rhetoric, change the objective, change the "game."  Suddenly the "weapons of mass destruction" did not matter. Now the Iraqis are free.  I wonder how they would respond to their freedom and the process leading up to it?

In essence, since the DR Congo has multiple militias, according to Blair, one more is immaterial.  Look at Paul Kagame's success.  Ignore how this success was obtained.  Ignore that it is a crime to say that the Genocide of 1994 included more killed than just the Tutsis (this is called a Double Genocide Ideology and is punishable by imprisonment).

Ignore the fact that the ONLY political part that is viable in Rwanda is the RPF.  Ignore the fact that any opposition is jailed on trumped up charges or assassinated.  Ignore the fact that the Rwandan constitution allows for 2 Presidential terms and Kagame, now in his second term, will not say that he has served his tenure and will step down.  Ignore the fact that journalists in Rwanda.  Ignore the fact that sources have said that they never know when they are being listened to on their phones. Ignore the fact that Rwandans live in fear that saying the wrong thing may lead to imprisonment or disappearance or death.

Ignore the fact that Kagame has supported the M23 militia which has terrorized the Congolese people. Ignore the fact that Kagame has been the Puppet of the Western nations in Africa. Even to this day, Western nations will not name Rwanda or Kagame in the United Nations Security Council Meetings as an aggressor in the conflicts in the DRC. Ignore the fact that one reason that people in the DRC live in perpetual fear is Paul Kagame.

After all, Blair has pointed out - Kagame has helped lower the malaria rate in Rwanda by 60%...Mosquitos Beware!