One Guy's Alarming Predictions for Neighboring Guinea

From a columnist in World Defense Review, who argues that in spite of it's relative invisibility on the international scene, Guinea's mineral wealth (bauxite, among others) makes it a powder keg:

While most Americans have probably either never heard of it or confuse it for Papua New Guinea [or Guinea-Bissau or French Guyana, Ed.] chances are that there are more products in their homes containing inputs from raw Guinean materials than those of almost any other nation.

Guinea is, as I testified to a Congressional subcommittee earlier this year, both the most ignored country and, potentially, the most critical one in the West African subregion as it faces the end of the long tenure at the helm of President Lansana Conté, a septuagenarian military officer who suffers from acute diabetes, leukemia, and a host of other known maladies, and who nowadays rarely ventures from his stronghold...

...all bets are off for the power vacuum that is expected to follow his eventual demise. Analysts are divided on whether having the largest standing military in its neighborhood will exacerbate or mitigate the coming chaos.

Hmmm. Not what Liberia needs right now!

FYI Guinea is much bigger in area than Liberia, and shares many of the same ethnic groups. The borders are pretty much ignored in some parts. Many Liberians spent time in refugee camps there during the wars, where at least they were able to attend school.