El Presidente's doing his thing in Africa - perhaps because he's more popular over there than he is at home - and has been warmly received everywhere. He's also received plaudits from Bob Geldorf, the other Irish rocker who's taken an interest in the continent's plight. Geldorf said, a comment sure to raise liberal hackles, that Bush has done more for African than any other president so far. But let's be honest and look at US-African history since 1945:
- Pressuring Europeans to end their colonial presence was a mixed bag. Some were obviously suffering - Belgian colonies, for example (not to say that things improved after they left) - but many of the British colonies have gone downhill since independence. Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria come to mind - but don't take my word for it, look at demographic indicators.
- During the Cold War, we largely let Africa go to pot in our struggle with the Communists. Not that I'm saying we shouldn't have subverted the continent to our national interest - we should have, and anyways they would be worse off under Communism, but in terms of helping Africa it wasn't our brightest hour.
- After the Cold War, Bush Sr. wasn't all that concerned. The continent was sort of in stasis - political and economic turmoil, of course, but I don't believe that we'd begun to understand the true extent of the AIDS crisis.
- Clinton: Rwanda. Need we say more?
- Bush II: AIDS programs, consistent engagement with the continent - more than previous presidents. Some might fault him, saying we haven't done enough to end the bloodshed in Darfur, for example; there's some merit in this, but those same folks are the ones who castigate us for going into Iraq without UN authorization - and there's no way in hell we'd get a UN resolution authorizing US troops into Darfur.
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