Moving Beyond Aid: The Need To Rethink Congo Policy

Brett Schaefer / May 17, 2009

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Cindy McCain (wife of Senator John McCain) makes a heartfelt call for the U.S. to increase its support and aid for the victims of chaos in eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After giving a broad description of the great suffering occurring in the region due to lack of governance, instability, and corruption she states:

Only the international community and the struggling government of the Democratic Republic of Congo can restore real order to the country. But until then, the United States — the single largest contributor of food aid to these people — must make a choice. Will we walk away and let hundreds of thousands die of slow starvation, or will we push our aid package even harder?

This is a straw man argument of the kind typically used by President Obama. These are not the only choices on the table. If they were, Congo is doomed. The U.N. peacekeeping operation in the DRC is one of its largest operations in the world yet has failed to establish stability in eastern Congo. It has failed because the government of DRC is completely inept and largely corrupt. Sending aid, even on a more massive scale than is currently the case, into eastern Congo is a short-term solution at best.

What is needed is a long-term solution. Unfortunately, Mrs. McCain does not grapple with that problem and instead focuses on the tangent of increasing aid: (more…)