America, the Beautiful

No one would consider Bob Geldof a Bush supporter. The ex-Boomtown Rats rock star has been vocal in his criticism of Bush as well as his support for Africa. After joining Bush on his latest visit to Africa, Geldof had the chance to spend some time with the President while Air Force One was cruising Africa from its East Coast to its West Coast and as a result he wrote a diary about this whole experience. It is not entirely flattering to the US President, but it is honest and more importantly, it recognizes what a great country America really is. Here are a few excertps from

"Geldof and Bush: Diary From the Road" by Bob Geldof

The Most Powerful Man in the World studied the front cover. "Geldof in Africa — 'The international best seller.' You write that bit yourself?"
"That's right. It's called marketing. Something you obviously have no clue about or else I wouldn't have to be here telling people your Africa story."

It is some story. And I have always wondered why it was never told properly to the American people, who were paying for it. It was, for example, Bush who initiated the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with cross-party support led by Senators John Kerry and Bill Frist. In 2003, only 50,000 Africans were on HIV antiretroviral drugs — and they had to pay for their own medicine. Today, 1.3 million are receiving medicines free of charge. The U.S. also contributes one-third of the money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria — which treats another 1.5 million. It contributes 50% of all food aid (...). On a seven-day trip through Africa, Bush announced a new $350 million fund for other neglected tropical diseases that can be easily eradicated; a program to distribute 5.2 million mosquito nets to Tanzanian kids; and contracts worth around $1.2 billion in Tanzania and Ghana from the Millennium Challenge Account, another initiative of the Bush Administration.

So why doesn't America know about this? "I tried to tell them. But the press weren't much interested," says Bush. There are always a couple of lines in the State of the Union, but not enough so that anyone noticed, and the press really isn't interested.

"We're trying to build a humanitarian mission that would train up soldiers for peace and security so that African nations are more capable of dealing with Africa's conflicts. You agree with that dontcha?" Indeed I do. The British intervention in Sierra Leone stopped and prevented a catastrophe, as did U.S. action in Liberia. Later, in public, Bush says, "I want to dispel the notion that all of a sudden America is bringing all kinds of military to Africa. It's simply not true ... That's baloney, or as we say in Texas — that's bull!"

....As for the rest of the world, for all their oft-spoken pieties, they seem to be able to agree on precisely nothing. Meanwhile, the rape and killing continue, Khartoum plays its game of murder and we won't even pay for the helicopters that the U.N. forces need to protect themselves. Pathetic.

"See, I believe we're in an ideological struggle with extremism," says the President. "These people prey on the hopeless. That's why this trip is a mission undertaken with the deepest sense of humanity, because those other folks will just use vulnerable people for evil. Like in Iraq."
I don't want to go there. I have my views and they're at odds with his, and I don't want to spoil the interview or be rude in the face of his hospitality.

"Mr. President, please. There are things you've done I could never possibly agree with and there are things I've done in my life that you would disapprove of, too. And that would make your hospitality awkward. The cost has been too much. History will play itself out." "I think history will prove me right," he shoots back. "Who knows," I say. He is convinced, like Tony Blair, that he made the right decision. "I'm comfortable with that decision," he says.

(...) Bush has an M.B.A. He thinks like a businessman in terms of the bottom line. Results. Profit and loss. There is an empiricism to a lot of his furthest-reaching policies on Africa. Correctly, he's big on trade. "A 1% increase in trade from Africa," he says, "will mean more money than all the aid put together annually." He's proud that he twice reauthorized the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a modestly revolutionary Clinton Administration initiative that enabled previously heavily taxed exports to enter the U.S. tax-free. (...) the beneficial impact of AGOA on such places as the tiny country of Lesotho, and its growing textile industry, has been startling.

The Bush regime has been divisive — but not in Africa. I read it has been incompetent — but not in Africa. It has created bitterness — but not here in Africa. Here, his administration has saved millions of lives.

The US has saved millions of lives not only in Africa, but also in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and anywhere else in the World were there was a need. Who else would have done it if not us - France, the European Union, the UN? Maybe even Michelle Obama can now be proud of her country...regardless of her husband political fortunes.