Foreign Policy
Bush to Trumpet African Successes as Crises Cast Shadows
By JOHN D. MCKINNON
February 9, 2008; Page A2
President Bush starts a victory lap across Africa next week, celebrating his little-noticed but successful fights there against AIDS and malaria. But he also will be running hard to avoid the shadow of a growing number of political crises and controversies in the region.
As Mr. Bush enters his final 12 months in office, advocates are praising his campaign to battle disease and promote economic growth in poor countries, especially in Africa. It has emerged as a bright spot in a foreign-policy legacy marred by controversy over the Iraq war.
Bono, the Irish rock star turned global gadfly, once said that Mr. Bush has done "an incredible job" with his AIDS campaign. As it nears the end of its first five years, it has put 1.4 million people on life-sustaining therapies at a cost to the U.S. of more than $15 billion. The Bono-affiliated ONE campaign broadened its praise last month, saying Mr. Bush deserves credit for his fights against malaria and extreme poverty in the region. The White House hopes the trip will lock in congressional support for his initiatives, particularly as he is seeking a doubling of funding for combating AIDS to $30 billion over the next five years.
The president's visit begins on Saturday in the tiny West African nation of Benin. Then he travels to Tanzania and Rwanda in East Africa and returns to Ghana and Liberia in West Africa.
"President Bush made Africa a priority early on, has followed through on his initiatives and is driven by a desire to make sure that these programs, which are working, stay in place after he leaves office," said White House Press Secretary Dana Perino.
At the same time, Mr. Bush is likely to face questions about a range of dicey political issues in trouble spots such as Darfur, Sudan; Kenya; Chad; and Zimbabwe. Critics say Mr. Bush is likely to try to avoid some of the region's seemingly intractable problems, particularly those related to ethnic strife. They say the White House hasn't invested enough energy in diplomacy in Africa, particularly in comparison with its investment in economic development and disease relief.
Stephen Morrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, defends the administration's approach. "It's rather a question of not preferring to make these really tough, complex crises the centerpiece of the trip. But it's unavoidable that they're going to have to talk about this."
Foreign-policy analysts believe the administration launched its big AIDS and malaria campaigns in part to counter criticism of America's foreign-policy moves elsewhere. White House aides disagree, saying Mr. Bush has always viewed fostering development in poor countries as a moral imperative. In the wake of 9/11, it also has become a security goal, they say.
One result is that the U.S. is unusually popular in most of sub-Saharan Africa, even as America's standing has dropped elsewhere in the world, particularly in predominantly Muslim countries. Three African countries, including Ghana, view the U.S. even more favorably than people in the U.S. do, according to a recent report by the Pew Global Attitudes Project. The U.S. enjoys its highest favorable-opinion rating anywhere in the world in the West African nation of Ivory Coast, at 88%.
A song that has been popular among Liberians in the U.S. sums up attitudes toward that country's benefactors: "Give me a one way ticket to Monrovia/I'm never coming back/Thank you papa Kofi Annan/Thank you George Bush."
