There is so much information in this article, one almost doesn't know where to begin. Obama doesn't have a clue about foreign policy, the military, development or economics. Building "democracies" comes out of the neoconservative Clean Break play book available on the web. Even the Israelis are leery of that one because they got Hamas in a free and fair election. Better the dictator you know than the uncertainty of elections. While I have no objections to "free and fair " elections, I do not believe that democracy can be imposed from the outside. As has been noted in other articles by this author with regard to Iran, pushing for democracy from the outside and associating it with regime change bring about repressive policies against native people seeking democracy separate from the foreign policies of other countries.

I am dead set against "missionary" foreign policies. Democracy needs to be a result of "self determination" and native to the country in which it occurs. All politics must be local. However, we could be helpful with economic development, and I don't mean "free trade." The current scramble for Africa and the global South is not about colonies, but it is about using "free trade" to control the natural resources for industrial development in other countries. Developing countries need trade barriers so they can use their natural resources to develop their own industrial base. This is how the US became a major industrial nation! Africa does not need to sell their agricultural product abroad but needs to be food-independent and serving local economies. This is development! Obama's advisers the same people who got the ball rolling on this current economic mess. Bush made it worse, but they started this economic idiocy.

Pervis J. Casey

Riverside, CA