They condemn, revile and often despise him, but the critics of President Bush really need to pause for a minute every now and then, let reality seep into their seething brains, and grant the man his good points. Not the least of which is that he just may be saving more lives abroad than any president in U.S. history.
Don’t take my word for it. Read the stories that came out of Africa as President Bush toured five nations — including those in which literally millions are benefiting from anti-disease, anti-poverty programs Bush promoted and ushered into existence. These are multibillion-dollar efforts that have successfully combated AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis on that impoverished, desperate continent, just as his free-trade and investment policies have enhanced the material prospects of millions, making far less likely those appalling photographs of starving children with bloated bellies.
It wasn’t just good intentions that accomplished this blessed outcome that is now giving political stability, robust health and prosperity in Africa a chance, but open-eyed policy-making that factored in the vast amounts of aid in the past that were worse than wasted. The money regularly was used to buttress cruel dictatorships.
As studies have shown, deteriorating conditions are assured when you funnel billions of unwatched dollars into countries in which the chief functions of government are to exploit, abuse, steal and oppress. If, on the other hand, you do as the Bush administration did and make aid dependent on norms of economic freedom, governmental competence and democratic decency, my oh my, how the garden can grow.
Should Americans fret that, for all its magnificent humanitarian value, the Bush aid did them no good? They might consider that a less disabled, recovering Africa can be an important ally in the dangerous years ahead, and that if we give up on it and let it writhe in its agony, we are giving anti-Western, Islamic fascists an opportunity to foment a hatefulness that could be used to ghastly effect against us.
But because this president has done far more for Africa than any president before him, because he has multiplied aid of different kinds by two times and more, and because he has done it wisely, to the point of actually rescuing untold numbers from painful death, he and the United States are increasingly popular on a continent where tragedy is being displaced by progress and optimism.
All of this is worth thinking about as partisans bemoan the supposed shattering of the United States’ international relations; as scattered city councils neglect their possibly dreary, but important duties to consider vainglorious impeachment resolutions; as the two Democratic candidates for president pander for special-interest votes by denigrating free trade that serves us and others; as one of those candidates talks murkily about “change” and “hope” while Bush brings about extensive, concretely meaningful change and hope; and as this candidate’s wife says she is proud of her country for the first time in her life because voters are saluting his vacuities.
President Bush certainly has his faults, some of them grave and certainly worth elaborating. But he also has his accomplishments, ranging from fruitful negotiations to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear arsenal to an unexpected (and hardly accidental) safety on our shores in the years following the 9/11 attacks.
The long run will tell us more; whether, for example, he made powerful and lasting transformations in the Middle East. In the short run, some critics are making Bush out to be one of the worst villains in American history. There are millions of Africans who know better.
Examiner Columnist Jay Ambrose is a former Washington opinion writer and editor of two dailies. He may be reached at [email protected]
