Bush raises false fears and artificial Confrontations then leaves for Africa, I wondered why? Stupid me I should have known!

First I just want to say, Presidents day and Bush leaves the country because he isn't one and doesn't want to hear about the successes of past Presidents while his has to us been a total failure while he calls it a success! After watching the childish Republican antics when they walked out of the House to a set up press conference and listening to Bush Fear monger if Democrats didn't cave in to him again the chief idiot went to Africa to supposedly highlight his great successes there as President!

Successes? where? I looked at the first country he went to and I never even heard of it. Benin? Anyway I hear that Africans love him and when I found out that under Bush finding went from $1 Billion to $6 Billion. My first question is where the hell did it go? No wonder they like Bush! President Bush arrived in the West African nation of Benin Saturday morning, the first stop in a five-nation trip to Africa which also will include stops in Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia. 5 out of 53 countries, buy was he selective!

President Bush said he chose Benin to start his six-day Africa tour because its leaders were determined to fight corruption and were careful to make sure U.S. aid dollars were properly spent. "This is such a good lessen, one of the reasons I've come here, sir, is that leaders around the world have got to understand that the United States wants to partner with leaders and their people, but we're not going to do so with people who steal money, pure and simple." nope you have to be a corruptive American to steal from Bush or he gets pissed.

I was going to talk about what Bush calls successes with his pledged $300 Million but after reading about him bragging that many nets have been bought to protect people from mosquitoes carrying malaria. I wondered mosquito nets? Where are the experts? where is the medicine? Where are the Doctors? Somebody has to make sure this money is spent right not misspent and stolen but oh yeah Bush doesn't like over sight to keep people honest. I read President Boni asking for help with the countries main industry cotton. Taking it out of the stone age and finding a market it can compete in, isn't that help? With insufficient water and electricity they are powerless. Bush doesn't want to help them. He merely wants to create the facade of concern again. This idiot stupefies me. The problems in the tiny little African nation Bush is focusing on are so overwhelming I gave up. I ask you to please read it asThis is just overwhelming

Why is Bush really there besides hiding once again from the dire reality he has created in America? Why face it when he can highlight a few islands he calls success in the African Continent he wants greater influence over because of oil, other resources, and his desired AFRICOM. Russia and China also want those reserves and oil and are stepping up there interests and the Islamists are ripping apart the entire Continent. Analysts say the president’s visit to Africa includes several stops that emphasize the United States’ strategic interests. One is Rwanda. J. Peter Pham is the director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs at James Madison University in Virginia. He notes that in 2007, the US government gave Rwanda more than 160 million dollars in development aid and seven million in military aid.

Pham says Kigali may also participate in AFRICOM, the new US Africa Command of the US Department of Defense. AFRICOM leaders say it will help 53 countries build regional security and crisis support capacity. "Rwanda is a major contributor to UN peacekeeping efforts in Africa," says Pham. "It took the lead in Darfur…. [It was] one of the first countries to put boots on the ground with the Africa Union mission and now the UN African Union hybrid mission. What AFRICOM will bring to a country like Rwanda…is helping train the trainers…helping build up Rwanda’s capacity to contribute to African security. " "In the case of Rwanda, they are very interested [in AFRICOM] . They've done a hell of a job haven't they? Success in Darfur? Unbelievable? This was also so overwhelming I was flustered and gave up reading about it. So please read these friggen successes

President Bush’s trip to Africa is an easy one and somewhat disappointing because the president is going to less controversial countries. “He picked some countries where there is no controversy and where he avoids all the critical issues of Africa. The countries that he needs to talk about are not the ones he’s visiting. He needs to talk about Kenya, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Chad and Congo, but he’s not visiting any of those countries. He can even talk about Nigeria. But he’s going to Benin possibly because it would provide him an opportunity to talk about some of the democratic progress that Benin has made,” he said. Although Tanzania chairs the African Union, President Bush should have gone to troubled neighboring Kenya. Bush avoids controversial countries

Highlight supposed successes, strategic interests, avoidance as usual the real problems. Just why is he there? Well I didn't even think of this but... In a humid rehearsal studio, Liberia's pop queen is practicing her newest single — a song called "Thank you" to be released for President Bush's visit here next week. Her head tilted back, Juli Endee pulls the microphone close and belts out, "Thank you, George Bush." "Thank you for democracy," she croons over the electric guitar, shaking her hips wrapped in yellow cloth. "Thank you for the rule of law," she sings. "Thank you for debt relief." Bush is scheduled to head to Africa on Friday for a visit that will bring him to one of the few parts of the globe where people still have a favorable view of America. A recent Pew poll of 47 nations found that America's popularity is exceptionally high in Africa, where some hold the U.S. in higher regard than Americans do themselves.

America's popularity verges on exuberance in this nation founded in 1847 by freed U.S. slaves. "If you were to take a survey, you would find that there is not one Liberian that doesn't love George Bush," effuses pop star Endee, whose songs calling for peace were among the most played during Liberia's civil war. The Bush administration has made Africa the centerpiece of its aid strategy. Twelve of the 15 countries receiving funding from the five-year, $15 billion President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief are in Africa. Nine African countries are among the 16 drawing grants from Bush's Millennium Challenge Corporation, which provides support to nations that have reached benchmarks from stemming corruption to investing in immunizations. Since Bush took office, U.S. development aid to Africa has tripled, funding for HIV programs have vaulted from under $1 billion to over $6 billion per year and garment exports from Africa to America, fueled by special trade deals, increased sevenfold, according to U.S. statistics.

* "His Africa policy has taken us by surprise. None of us expected this," said Tom Kamara, editor-in-chief of the New Democrat, a leading Liberian daily. Bush's focus on the continent, analysts said, stems from the realization that it's no longer just a case of Africa needing America, but of America needing Africa. Today, a fifth of U.S. oil imports come from a single African nation — Nigeria. By the end of the decade, one in five new barrels of oil entering the global market are projected to come from Africa, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The continent's vast, ungoverned spaces have been recognized as one of the new frontiers in the war on terror, with al-Qaida claiming responsibility for attacks in northern Africa and a radical Islamic group with alleged links to the terror organization waging a bloody insurgency in Somalia.

More than 1,200 U.S troops are stationed in Djibouti, which hosts the base for an anti-terrorism task force in the Horn of Africa. Last year, the Defense Department announced the creation of a unified U.S. military command for the continent. "Of course there is a strong element of self-interest in all this," said Peter Pham, director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs at James Madison University in Virginia. The U.S. approach to aid is no longer just about charity, but about helping emerging democracies evolve and secure their borders to prevent them becoming breeding grounds for terror, Pham said. Bush's Africa itinerary — his second trip to the continent since 2003 — offers examples of countries whose progress toward democracy and economic stability has been rewarded by U.S. aid. Bush buying an Image of failure with our Billions

** I thought hiding from reality here in the US and his failed Democratization were his main goals until I heard this and never even thought of this! President Bush's advisers hope his trip to Africa this month will soften opposition to the administration among African-Americans—and possibly help the eventual Republican presidential nominee and other GOP candidates to make inroads into the black vote this fall. "The president really cares about Africa," says a senior White House official, and Bush hopes to make that clear by underscoring his commitment to spending millions of dollars to fight AIDS, HIV, malaria, and other diseases as part of his ongoing programs to help African nations. The hope among GOP strategists is that, at minimum, African-American voters at home won't be motivated to cast ballots against Republican candidates this fall when they see that Bush and, by implication, his party have Africa's best interests at heart. Black voters in the United States have given little support to Bush throughout his presidency and have gone heavily Democratic. Bush plans to spend a week in Africa starting February 15 visiting Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Liberia. Bush motivated by potential Black votes for 2008

** I am stupefied! As he hides from his failures in the US he goes to Africa to visit supposed friends and avoid the real problems there while giving another facade of concern and why I wondered? Votes for McCain, I can't friggen believe it!

James Joiner

Gardner Ma

http://www.anaveragepatriot.com/