Into Africa

For John, BLUF:  Africa is still emerging from a period of colobialism.  We are not doing a good job of being the Good Guys.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Ignoring Biden's Fallout in Africa

From ewerickson sunstack, by Blogger Erick-Woods Erickson, 1 September 2023.

Here is the lede plus two:

As a growing number of African countries devolve into chaos and seek alliances with countries opposed to US policy, the Biden administration is nowhere to be seen on the national stage.

Just this week, military leaders in Gabon instigated a coup that ousted the country’s longtime leader.  If you follow the news, you’ll notice this story sounds familiar.  The exact same thing happened in the West African country of Niger that turned a historically American ally into chaos and fleeing to Russia for help.  Earlier this year two Sudanese generals declared war on each other devolving one of the world’s poorest countries into civil war.  Additional countries like the Central African Republic, Libya, and Mali have ignored the US and sought help from Russia’s Wagner military.

It’s worthwhile noting that before Biden handed Afghanistan over to the Taliban, progressives at the State Department hoisted the rainbow flag over Kabul in a symbolic gesture that thoroughly infuriated small conservative nations around the world.  Aside from the optics of turning our friends over to the terrorists, the Biden administration forgets that gestures like this do not sit well with many of the small African countries sitting on valuable oil and rare earth minerals.

What is happening in Africa should be important for two reasons.  First, we are dealing with fellow human beings.  Some 14% of our population can trace its roots, in whole or in part, back to Africa.♠  Second, Africa is a mineral rich area, at a time when things like oil and rare earths are in increasing demand.  That is to say, for a better life, we need to be able to purchase things that are produced in various African nations.

Our current focus is the Indo-Pacific, and rightfully so.  There are nations there we wish to see prosper, such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan, The Philippines and India.  Then there is South America and the Middle East, not to mention Europe.  But, the President needs a strong player to cover Africa.  Someone who is believed to have access to the Oval Office.  Not John Kerry, but someone like John Kerry.  We need to think of Africa, especially Sub-Saharan Africa as more than an anti-terrorism campaign.  It needs to be about human rights and self-determination.  It needs to be about capital investment and human development.  It needs to be about human freedom.

If we snooze we lose.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  I suspect the number is higher if we all looked, at least at the single digit percentage level in a DNA test.  For example, the Iberian Peninsula was a great mixing bowl for half a millennium. : Then there was Latin America, with its own mixing of peoples.