I've long wished America would play a more active role in Africa, creating economic ties and improvement, assisting fledgling democracies, and increasing humanitarian assistance and not supporting murderous thugs.

That entire continent has been devastated by colonialism and the environment. For pure american self-interest, helping build strong democratic/economically sound nations decreases world unrest and creates new markets.

For basic human rights, too many people are suffering needlessly, and as a friend once told me, at some point it doesn't matter why someone is in need, it simply matters that they are . . . now having said that I agree that throwing billions of dollars at a corrupt government is wrong and a recipe for disaster. That is one of the reasons we're in the mess we are in Iraq/Iran/Afghanistan.

While I am heartened to see our leader actually in Africa, I'm waiting to see long-term commitments beyond just money. And I was actually kind of annoyed by his slavery is wrong speech, I mean come on, I think that issue was decided 100+ years ago by a leader who had the courage to discuss it when it actually was controversial; Bush should be using the bully pulpit for current issues (I haven't heared all his comments so he may have) and I don't like the way he keeps ducking the Nigerian uranium questions, but that's typical politicalese that we would get from any politician . . .