Letter from a Friend

This came in email earlier from a friend who happens to be a former politician and front line combat journalist from South Africa. I think it really sums up the election:

That your state is about to elect the first [endorsed by] Nation of Islam President? I do not share the rose tinted vision of the bien pensants in the media. I think this guy is Jimmy Carter Mark 2. America will probably survive him, but there are many places and people in the world who will not.

Case in point is Sudan where I was for a month and a half a year ago. This perfectly illustrated the different effects of Republican and Democrat foreign policies. There were glimmers of US support during the presidency of George Bush 1 when some pressure was applied to the arab government in Khartoum. But that disappeared during Clinton’s terms and the northern government and their janjaweed militas continued to wage their 23 year war on the south. It was a war prosecuted without discrimination. One of the villages where I was Kenyan told me that when he arrived a year before as one of the first international aid workers every time the village dogs heard a plane overhead they ran for the bush because they were programmed to escape from the Antonovs which frequently came to bomb. British anti-slavery activists have documented how the northerners raided for slaves throught the conflict. The Arabic term for slave (abeed) is the same as the Arabic word for black person.

When W came in it all began to change. He began squeezing the Khartoum government to the point (it is rumoured) that he sent in military teams to aid the SPLA. Whether that part is true or not, it worked. There was a deal and the country is at peace for the first time since the early 80’s.

The point is that any US administration that does not recognise that there are evil bastards in the world and treat them accordingly means that the bad guys try and get away with stuff they would not otherwise attempt. It happened under Carter when the US refused to involve itself in conflicts like Angola, Iran and Afghanistan. The result was widespread killing and misery for the people of those countries. Some of it lasted for years- most of it is out of sight of the media who are not terribly moved unless it fits the script of western wickedness. If the one becomes the president a lot of poor people in distant parts of the world are going to get hammered.OK – rant over. offended by my third world viewpoint

The point to make is whether, to elect the first "black" -- in fact half Arab -- president of the US we're willing to sacrifice millions of Africans.