Bush in Africa

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.

So Geldorf's statement isn't a stretch - indeed it's probably the truth. I've got my own personal quibbles with his policies - the emphasis on abstinence rather than contraception in the fight against AIDS for example - but I don't dispute Geldorf's point. Anyways, this whole post was largely an excuse to embed this video. It isn't MC Rove, but try not to laugh too hard.

At Least One Muslim Country Loves America

Bush is currently visiting Albania - the first US president to do so - and has received an enthusiastic welcome. Many in the media, if they could find Albania on a map might be surprised not only because it's a foreign country (they all hate us, right?) but also because it's 70% Muslim. Of course until 1985, Albania was ruled by paranoid, xenophobic Enver Hoxha, a man who might give Kim Jong Il a run for his money if there was a "Least Cuddly World Leader" competition.

I think the warmth of Bush's reception is based on three interrelated factors. First off, Albania's traumatic experience with the "wonders" of Communism are so fresh - and the country still so desperately poor - that unlike elsewhere there is no knee-jerk lefty response; closely-linked is the fact that America is still seen as a force for good in the region. On a personal level, as the article noted, US programs (probably through USAID) are lending to Albanians - microfinance is one of the developing world's greatest weapons against poverty. On a regional level, the US remains a bulwark against Russian meddling, as with Putin's opposition to an independent Kosovo.

The Balkans have always been a playground for Russian imperialist/expansionist efforts. Prior to World War I, this was because Tsarist Russia feared the Ottoman Empire and later because (oftentimes wrapped in the veil of pan-Slav ideology) the declining Ottomans, the "sick man of Europe," was for Russian expansion. Russian and Austria sparred in the region (though not as far west as Albania) too before the Great War, again jockeying for control of former Ottoman possessions. After the Second World War, much of the region fell under communist (though not always Soviet) rule. Thus in a lingering Cold War sense, America is the regional Good Guy; the autocratic resurgence of Putin's Russia isn't likely to change that perception in the immediate future. (In fact, I'm wondering if such attitudes aren't prevalent in many parts of the former USSR).