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Bush Tries To Ease African Fear

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By JENNIFER LOVEN, The Associated Press

Published: February 21, 2008

ACCRA, Ghana - In a country teeming with resources the world covets, President Bush sought on Wednesday to soothe African fears about U.S. interests on the continent. He said America is not aiming to make Africa into a base for greater military power or a proxy battleground with China.

The desire for Africa's vast raw materials - oil, gold, diamonds, minerals, crops and more - has a long, violent and exploitative history. That's especially true in this resource-rich nation on the shores of West Africa, the first place in sub-Saharan Africa that Europeans came to trade, first in gold, then slaves. It's now the site of a new offshore oil discovery.

So it came as little surprise that Bush's talk on how U.S. generosity has made strides against disease and poverty drew skepticism about an underlying American agenda. Some of those questions arose at Bush's appearance with Ghana's leader at Osu Castle, once a slave-trading hub, now the seat of government.

Bush sought to deal with suspicions about creation of a new U.S. military command dedicated to Africa. Libya, Nigeria and South Africa have expressed fears the plan signals an unwanted expansion of U.S. power in Africa or is a cover for protecting Africa's oil on behalf of America. Bush said Ghanian President John Kufuor told him in private that "you're not going to build any bases in Ghana."

"I know there's rumors in Ghana, 'All Bush is coming to do is try to convince you to put a big military base here,'" he said at a news conference. "That's baloney. Or as we say in Texas, that's bull."

He said the new command aims at more effectively reorganizing U.S. military efforts related to Africa under one hierarchy, and strengthening African nations' peacekeeping, anti-terror, anti-trafficking and other efforts. The administration will run AFRICOM from U.S. bases in Africa, directing it from Stuttgart, Germany.

On China, Bush said, "We can pursue agendas without creating a sense of competition." He said America is a better, kinder partner because it aims to improve African lives while China focuses on commercial opportunity to the exclusion of almost all else.

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