Colonisation is OVER

European countries have colonised and used Africa's land and people for some time, from the Portuguese to the British, and yet we've stopped trying to "take over" African countries.  Contemporary times seem to be focused on reparations or dealing with the consequences of colonisation, instead of continued use and exploitation of the land.  Why?  Is the land that shitty that agriculture won't continue to thrive?  Are the people that lazy that they can't force everyone to work towards industrialising civilization? 

Also, how can we terraform dry and arid land into fertile soil in order to grow crops?  This applies to Africa, the middle east, and parts of asia.  There is so much unused land, so why can't it be infused with nutrients, fertilizer, nitrates, etc.

>>7

Why bother? Because you care about human life, maybe? Not good enough? Let me ask you this: Do you see a real difference between the infrastructure in Iraq and the infrastructure in some African countries? (Other than Islam?) Would you only be willing to get involved with Africa when an anti-west sentiment grows there and one of your trains get bombed? The bigger question overall is why would one wait to allow an anti-west sentiment to grow in a region? Is it to repeat another Iraq? Or Afghanistan?

Also, I think you're missing the point entirely. The shift of European nations to being opposed to military solutions in Iraq is fairly recent in comparison to when all this got kicked off. However, the idea was to make Iraq an example to the middle east. Same can apply to Africa. Take one African country- invest in it WITHOUT taking it over and putting an "American" face on everything and see how long it'll take others to overthrow their warlords and get a piece of that stability. Another upside is that while you're investing in the region- you would at least have people who are grateful for the help. 

Overall, your entire reasoning behind not providing aid to Africa is that it's "big" and their is nothing in it for you. And I'm saying that because it's big and the potential for the region to go pro-west or anti-west is the reason you should look to get involved.

Like it or not, believe it not- eventually the regions that seem hopeless are going to wake up and when they do it would be in ones best interest to say that they were an integral part of that.