Bush Africa Trip Touts Successes, Bypasses Places He Can't Help

from Bloomberg

By Hans Nichols and Roger Runningen

President George W. Bush departs for Africa tonight to highlight his commitment to the impoverished continent and burnish his foreign-policy legacy.

In Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia, he'll tout initiatives to encourage democracy and combat poverty, disease and corruption. Missing from the itinerary are nations where Bush and the U.S. haven't been able to have as much of a positive impact.

His administration has called the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region ``genocide.'' Opposition parties and outside observers have condemned as unfair elections in Ethiopia and Nigeria, as well as in Kenya, where post-ballot violence has killed hundreds and displaced hundreds of thousands. Bush yesterday said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will go to Kenya to urge peace.

``He's devoted more attention to Africa than previous presidents,'' said Joel Barkan, a scholar at the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington. Yet he has shown an ``inability to move on any international solution on Darfur and a slackening of support for democratization on Africa.''

Bush supporters say his focus on Africa -- especially $15 billion to fight AIDS there and elsewhere over five years, almost triple what was spent during Bill Clinton's administration -- counters the perception that his foreign policy is defined by military might alone.

`Underestimated' Legacy

The six-day trip will ``call attention to an underestimated foreign policy legacy of the Bush years, which is a tremendous increase in the funding of `soft power,' particularly in Africa,'' said Michael Gerson, a former Bush speechwriter and a consultant to him on Africa issues. ``When the Bush library is built, this will be a significant portion of what he wants there.''

Even critics praise Bush's work on AIDS. ``He's accomplished one thing, which is the scaling up access to AIDS treatment'' and that has ``made a big difference,'' said Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia University in New York and an adviser to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. ``Everything else about Africa, we've done nothing.''

Bush's itinerary includes smaller countries than his 2003 Africa tour, which included Nigeria and South Africa. In each nation, Bush, 61, will inspect the results of pro-democracy, health and anti-corruption initiatives begun during his presidency.

The trip is an ``opportunity to reaffirm the enduring commitment of the United States to bringing peace and stability to the region,'' said National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.

`A Step Backwards'

Though ``Kenya is a step backwards,'' Hadley said, there has been ``enormous progress'' on quelling half-a-dozen conflicts, from southern Sudan to Liberia, where Bush has developed a close relationship with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

``No president has done as much to mobilize resources for a region than this one,'' said Chester Crocker, a fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace and former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs for president Ronald Reagan. ``But engagement across the continent has been uneven.''

In Rwanda, the president will inspect a U.S.-funded HIV/AIDS facility, part of the $15 billion program, which Bush now wants doubled to $30 billion. The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is the largest-ever international health initiative dedicated to fighting a single disease.

Drugs for 1.3 million

Before the program began in 2003, 50,000 people in Africa were on anti-retroviral medications for AIDS; today, more than 1.3 million people receive such drugs.

``We've just never seen this scale of commitment to global health or to the health of other peoples,'' said Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. ``When history books get written,'' Bush's AIDS and malaria efforts will ``go down as the major positive legacy of his eight years in office,'' Garrett said.

In Tanzania, Bush will visit a spraying facility linked to the five-year, $1.2 billion President's Malaria Initiative. Begun in June 2005, it provides insecticide-treated bed nets and anti-malaria medicines as part of an effort to reduce malaria infections by 50 percent in 15 African countries by 2010.

Also in Tanzania, Bush will sign a $698 million foreign-aid ``compact'' with local authorities, under his Millennium Challenge Account program, initiated in 2004 to reduce poverty and promote democracy through economic growth in the developing world.

Fighting Corruption

More than $5.5 billion in poverty-reduction grants have been awarded to 16 countries through such ``compacts,'' under which recipient governments promise to fight corruption, invest in education and health and promote economic freedom. Countries must meet 17 benchmarks aimed at improving governance to qualify for money. Once qualified, they select and manage their own projects after holding public forums on how to spend the money.

John Danilovich, chief executive officer of the U.S. government's Millennium Challenge Corporation, said the use of ``soft power'' is changing the way U.S. aid is granted, managed and measured.

``We expect them to provide their own solutions for their own problems,'' Danilovich said in a Jan. 30 speech at the Foreign Press Center in Washington. ``Our aid demands tangible results.''