The Wall Street Journal-20080215-Bush Touts His Gains In Africa Before Trip
Return to: The_Wall_Street_Journal-20080215
Bush Touts His Gains In Africa Before Trip
Full Text (583 words)WASHINGTON -- President Bush touted his administration's policy of partnering with African democracies, pointing to "measurable results" achieved in fighting disease and promoting economic growth.
His speech in Washington came a day before Mr. Bush leaves for a weeklong trip to Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia to highlight the progress he says is being made. Africa has been a bright spot in Mr. Bush's foreign-affairs legacy. He is hoping that Congress will extend his policies -- especially his push to fight AIDS and malaria -- and that his impact on the continent will help shape history's view of him.
Mr. Bush described the change in U.S. policy under his watch as fundamental. "The new era is rooted in a powerful truth: Africa's most valuable resource is...the talent and creativity of its people," Mr. Bush said.
The approach includes not only the health initiatives but also a new way of handing out economic aid. That policy, administered through the four-year-old Millennium Challenge Corp., lets countries set many of their own development aims but gives strong preference to governments that have made political and social progress.
During his trip, Mr. Bush will announce the biggest Millennium Challenge deal yet, a compact with Tanzania that will provide almost $700 million. He will also push free trade and open investment in Ghana and yesterday announced private-investment funds for African businesses.
Mr. Bush underscored the strategic importance of both relief and reform, saying that "people who live in societies based on freedom and justice are more likely to reject the false promise of the extremist ideology."
A highlight of the trip will be next week's brief stopover in Liberia, a country founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century. In recent decades, Liberia has been torn by violence, but international intervention aided by the U.S. brought the fighting to a stop, and Liberia recently elected Africa's first female president.
One lingering question about Mr. Bush's trip is whether the itinerary -- only countries with relatively stable, progressive governments -- has been designed to skirt some of the region's numerous woes.
To counter that impression, Mr. Bush addressed several of those problems yesterday. He again condemned the violence in the Darfur region of Sudan. In an apparent dig at China, a Sudanese government ally, he added that American officials "expect other nations to join us in this effort to save lives from the genocide that is taking place."
He sharply criticized Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe as "a discredited dictator" who "presides over food shortages, staggering inflation and harsh repression." He also said he would dispatch Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to mediate in Kenya, beset by ethnic strife after a disputed election.
A broader question is whether the Bush policy of favoring progressive democracies could put the U.S. at a disadvantage against China, which has invested large sums in Africa in its quest for natural resources. Citing Sudan and Zimbabwe, experts say China's leaders aren't so particular about the countries they work with. Mr. Bush's trip appears designed in part to highlight the difference.
"It is part of the subliminal message," said Steve Radelet, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, a Washington think tank. The U.S. "is only dealing with the good guys....China's not."
Still, the U.S. has friends among Africa's dictatorships, too. Yesterday, for instance, Mr. Bush praised the leaders of Nigeria, widely regarded as one of Africa's more corrupt regimes. He cited their role in helping to end the violence in Liberia.
