Where credit is due

Henry Kissinger was interviewed by Der Spiegel (and helpfully excerpted by Ocean Guy)

SPIEGEL: Isn’t German and European opposition to a greater military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq also a result of deep distrust of American power?

Kissinger: By this time next year, we will see the beginning of a new administration. We will then discover to what extent the Bush administration was the cause or the alibi for European-American disagreements. Right now, many Europeans hide behind the unpopularity of President Bush. And this administration made several mistakes in the beginning.
[…]
Kissinger: … But I do believe that George W. Bush has correctly understood the global challenge we are facing, the threat of radical Islam, and that he has fought that battle with great fortitude. He will be appreciated for that later.

SPIEGEL: In 50 years, historians will treat his legacy more kindly?

Kissinger: That will happen much earlier.

Henry Kissinger thinks that President Bush will be vindicated for dislodging Saddam and, in general, taking the fight to the Islamists.

But there’s another area where he’s starting to get credit, even if not at home.

Reuters reports Unpopular at home, Bush basks in African praise (via memeorandum)

Unpopular at home and in much of the world during the last year of his presidency, George W. Bush is basking in rare adulation on his African tour.Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete poured praise on Bush in Dar es Salaam on Sunday, the second day of his five-nation African tour, each compliment applauded warmly by members of the east African country’s cabinet.

Although around 2,000 Muslim demonstrators protested against Bush on the eve of his visit, many thousands more cheering, waving people lined his road from the airport on Saturday.

According the article the adulation isn’t rare in Africa at all.

Don Surber observes

No president has made fighting AIDS and HIV in Africa a bigger priority than George Walker Bush. He has quietly, in his way, forged ties with African leaders and their people that both American and Africa will enjoy for decades to come.Reuters reported: “Because of the U.S. anti-malaria program, 5 percent of patients tested positive for the disease on the offshore islands of zanzibar in 2007 compared to 40 percent three years earlier, the Tanzanian leader said.”

Remarkable.

However the Reuters reporter mocks the President, the significance of his policy was not lost on Bob Geldof. (h/t memeorandum)

Mr. Geldof is an Irish rock and roll singer and longtime social activist who has helped, along with U2 rocker Bono, raise awareness about need in Africa. His most well known achievement is organizing the Live Aid concert in 1985, which raised money for debt relief for poor African countries.But Mr. Geldof has remained closely engaged with African affairs since then, and he spoke off the cuff to reporters today who were waiting for a press conference with Mr. Bush and Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

Mr. Geldof praised Mr. Bush for his work in delivering billions to fight disease and poverty in Africa, and blasted the U.S. press for ignoring the achievement.

Mr. Bush, said Mr. Geldof, “has done more than any other president so far.”

“This is the triumph of American policy really,” he said. “It was probably unexpected of the man. It was expected of the nation, but not of the man, but both rose to the occasion.”

“What’s in it for [Mr. Bush]? Absolutely nothing,” Mr. Geldof said.

Similarly, a few years ago, Geldof’s partner in raising awareness of problems in Africa, Bono, gave President Bush credit for his efforts.

There are a few ironies that come to mind.
1) Eight years ago candidate George W. Bush mocked the idea of nation building. After 9/11 though he came to realize that a vacuum of governance allows malignant movements to metastasize. In effect President Bush has been fighting the war on terror on two fronts: he’s taken the battle to the Islamists and he’s sought to deprive them of the bases they need to flourish. Bush’s many critics accuse him of not learning or adapting. In these ways, it’s pretty clear that President Bush has learned lessons in office that he didn’t conceive of when he was just a candidate.
2) For the first six years of President Bush’s tenure anytime an European head of state differed with him it was major news. Now that African heads of state are praising him, it isn’t reported straight but in contrast to his unpopularity at home. Perhaps the media ought to look at the way they’ve treated the President and wonder if their coverage plays any role in the public’s perception of him.
3) Michelle Obama has never been proud of her country in her adulthood until her husband’s success in his presidential bid. Amazingly when her country reached out to protect the most vulnerable of the world, it didn’t make her proud.
4) If the words of Bob Geldof and Bono toward the President had been critical, how many papers would have run with those criticisms on A1?

President Bush hasn’t been a perfect president, but he has adopted many policies that have been good and possibly even transforming. He doesn’t get nearly enough credit for them. Part of the problem, of course, is his failure to communicate his policies effectively. But part of the problem has also been the refusal of his opponents – especially those in the media – to give him his due.

Maybe Kissinger’s right, and we’ll start seeing some reconsideration of his record sooner rather than later.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.