Bush, Geldof and Africa

An email to Dr. Bill Bennett.

Dear Dr. Bill

A few days ago I heard Michael Medved mention that he asked some Marine instructors as to what languages they were teaching our best and brightest, and to his surprise and mine he said " Portuguese and French". What???...that’s what I said. He went on to explain that after they are successful ousting al qaeda from Iraq and Afghanistan they (al qaeda) will move there operations to Africa and prey on the misery there. Many of the primary or secondary languages in Africa are these two.

I heard this after I read the Times article by Bob Geldoff ( http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1717934,00.html ) about his time spent with President Bush on Air Force 1. He had some very complementary thing to say about his efforts in Africa and the literal millions of people he has saved from ugly deaths from Aids and other childhood diseases. Bob had to through in a little of his politics concerning the war which was of course negative. But he also made the statement that I heard you eco, that Bush has done a poor job of promoting his efforts in Africa.

Now bringing these things together, I see the line Bush is taking and I think he is more brilliant than I thought before. Seeing that al qaeda will be moving to Africa he has made a preemptive strike of a different kind, saving millions of lives, over 3 million to date from Aids and other miseries, opening trade with many of the poor countries to help there economies and providing food aid at unprecedented levels. Fighting for their hearts first before we fight with tanks shows me he really gets the big picture and knows what he is taking about, if only more Americans would listen. If they could listen to the words of one African, a worker in a hotel the president was going to stay at, as he said, “we kicked everyone out of the hotel because the ‘president of the world is coming’. That speaks volumes about what the African people think about him and our country.

On a related note, when looking at what we do around the world, the aid we provide, the protection against terror, freeing millions from dictators and despots and creating an economy that drives the world economy, it gives me such pride that my country is and will always be the greatest country on earth, the most selfless, the most giving and the most caring. We have the power to conquer the world if we saw fit, yet we win WWII and create better countries for our former enemies to grow from and become our allies. We feed the world’s hungry and ask nothing in return. We are the light on the hill, someone really smart said that once, and the world's last, best hope.
Thanks Bill for letting more people see the light.