A "freedom agenda" without any action to promote actual freedom:
In his recent tour of Africa, Obama has continued to excel in making the right kind of noise, or at least the kind of noise that may have been considered ‘right’ when he began his presidential career nearly eight years ago. Unfortunately, pumping out the same old rhetoric has done little to convince anyone that any progress has been made on any of the more salient of Africa’s issues.
Powerful statements such as those made on democratization in Africa and support for strong institutions and not for “strong men” may have hit the spot at an earlier point in his career but for many will seem little more than blind-eye-turning hypocrisy. While denouncing the autocrats in Zimbabwe and Burundi, Obama failed at a speech before the African Union to bring to task a number of other nations who are guilty of similar offenses, such as Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Djibouti, Rwanda, Uganda. And the fact that many of these omitted nations are also long-term security partners of the U.S. is sure to raise further eyebrows.
As we pivot to confront China in Asia, we are letting China and their tyrant-friendly rules penetrate Africa.
So instead of a so-called "NeoCon" foreign policy that sought to give people the chance for freedom and rule of law (remember, according to Democrats--now, not then (see the embedded video)--it was wrong to liberate Iraq from the tyrant Saddam, thus creating one of the great achievements of Obama foreign policy in democracy promotion--yeah, we won the war before we nearly lost it), we have a FauxCon policy of saying people should be free while doing nothing to make that a reality.
I'm so old, I remember when Kissinger-esque foreign policy realpolitik was just for cold, calculating (and don't forget evil!) conservatives.
