"Ignore Africa at Your Peril, Think Tank Warns Bush"

[GreenPartyVoter]

WASHINGTON - Africa's strategic importance to the United States -- both with respect to Washington's "war on terrorism" and the growing competition with China for access to energy supplies and other raw materials -- should be given more attention by policy-makers and the public, according to a major new report released here this week by the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

The 139-page report, which charges the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush with lacking a comprehensive, long-term strategy for dealing with the region, calls on Washington to upgrade its diplomatic and intelligence capabilities in the region by appointing an ambassador to the African Union (AU) and opening more missions in key African cities, particularly in energy-producing countries.

It also calls for greater high-level attention to resolving conflicts in the region, particularly those, such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), that threaten the stability of whole sub-regions or involve large-scale atrocities.

On Darfur, the report urges Washington to work with the AU in gaining U.N. authorization to deploy a larger force of African and non-African soldiers to join the nearly 7,000 AU troops already there to protect nearly two million displaced civilians and take military action, including a no-fly zone, to counter any threat against them.

However, the report argues that a strictly humanitarian approach to Africa -- as symbolized by last June's global "Live 8" concerts to pressure the Group of Eight (G-8) summit to double aid to Africa -- is not sufficient to maintain the kind of commitment to the continent that is consistent with its more hard-headed interests.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1206-06.htm

[RepublicanElephant]

1. the chinese sure are paying attention AND investing in africa. n/t

!

[G_j]

2. "hard-headed interests"

such as oil I suppose :-(

who are these CFR folks again?

edit: http://www.cfr.org/

What We Do
The Council on Foreign Relations is a nonpartisan and independent membership organization. Throughout the year, we hold a variety of meetings at which world leaders, government officials, academics, and other foreign-policy specialists discuss and debate world affairs. Transcripts of on-the-record meetings are available here. The Council is also home to a highly regarded think tank, whose fellows conduct research on international subjects ranging from national security to children’s education. And it is a publisher of a variety of reports and books and Foreign Affairs, the leading journal of global politics. Links to full descriptions of all the various Council activities are listed in the left-hand column.

[orwell]

3. El Crappola...

...Haven't we already screwed Africa enough. Maybe we should let them decide for themselves what they want to do with their own natural resources.

"Humanitarian" and "Bush Administration" are not exactly synonymous.