Live Aid?

I'm here to tell ya, the kind of live aid Africa (and North Korea, and Syria, and Iran, and...) needs most is a few divisions of US soldiers rolling into town.

OK, you can admire Bob Geldof and Company for trying to do something to help the poor in Africa. But. Just parachuting buckets of money into Africa is not the solution. The problem is not a lack of money. The problem is a surplus of dictators, civil wars, lack of democracy, etc... You think Robert Mugabe cares one whit about Madonna preening onstage?

You can't blame the lefties, they have the same solution for domestic problems. Just set stacks of cash outside the apartment door of some poor person, hope they don't get caught in the crossfire of some gang war when they open the door to get it, and all will be well. Alas, that isn't how the world works.

Here is the incomparable Mark Steyn on the topic of Live8.