Africa bright spot in Bush foreign policy legacy

WASHINGTON – President George W Bush Bush travels this week to Africa, one of the few regions where he can claim globally recognised successes for efforts on AIDS and development in a foreign policy legacy dominated by the Iraq war.

But conflicts in Kenya and Darfur will intrude on a trip intended to show the positive impact from US investment in health and development programmes in the largely stable countries of Benin, Tanzania, and Ghana as well as Rwanda and Liberia, once ravaged by civil war. “The trip will be an opportunity to demonstrate America’s commitment to the people of these countries and to Africa as a whole,” Stephen Hadley, White House national security adviser, said.”There’s more hope in Africa and the American people can be proud that many of our innovative programmes are making a real difference.”The February 15-21 trip will be the second for Bush to Africa, and the fifth for his wife, Laura, as they promote aid programmes by visiting hospitals, schools and businesses, and it will also offer Bush a chance to highlight his “compassionate conservative” credentials.The trip will take Bush away from issues like the Iraq war and a troubled US economy that are weighing on his popularity at home, where the November election has shifted the political focus to the race to choose his successor.Bush will discuss with African leaders the turmoil in Kenya, where post-election clashes have killed 1 000 people, and the need to deploy more African Union/UN peacekeepers into Darfur where he has labeled the violence genocide.The United States has been pressing the international community to get about 25 000 peacekeepers on the ground in Darfur and Bush has complained progress has been too slow.Those issues are likely to be raised with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, the new chairman of the African Union, and whose country has been affected by spillovers from neighboring Kenya’s violence.”There is a broadening arc of crisis in East Africa in the Horn.It’s very much on Tanzania’s door.It is very much on the African Union’s door,” said Stephen Morrison, co-director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.But the focus of the trip will be aid programmes started by Bush that are popular in Africa.A Pew Global Attitudes Project report released last July, found that the “US image is much stronger in Africa than in other regions of the world.Nampa-Reuters”The trip will be an opportunity to demonstrate America’s commitment to the people of these countries and to Africa as a whole,” Stephen Hadley, White House national security adviser, said.”There’s more hope in Africa and the American people can be proud that many of our innovative programmes are making a real difference.”The February 15-21 trip will be the second for Bush to Africa, and the fifth for his wife, Laura, as they promote aid programmes by visiting hospitals, schools and businesses, and it will also offer Bush a chance to highlight his “compassionate conservative” credentials.The trip will take Bush away from issues like the Iraq war and a troubled US economy that are weighing on his popularity at home, where the November election has shifted the political focus to the race to choose his successor.Bush will discuss with African leaders the turmoil in Kenya, where post-election clashes have killed 1 000 people, and the need to deploy more African Union/UN peacekeepers into Darfur where he has labeled the violence genocide.The United States has been pressing the international community to get about 25 000 peacekeepers on the ground in Darfur and Bush has complained progress has been too slow.Those issues are likely to be raised with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, the new chairman of the African Union, and whose country has been affected by spillovers from neighboring Kenya’s violence.”There is a broadening arc of crisis in East Africa in the Horn.It’s very much on Tanzania’s door.It is very much on the African Union’s door,” said Stephen Morrison, co-director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.But the focus of the trip will be aid programmes started by Bush that are popular in Africa.A Pew Global Attitudes Project report released last July, found that the “US image is much stronger in Africa than in other regions of the world.Nampa-Reuters

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